


Alliance Criminal Investigative Service

by Vergil1989



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy, NCIS
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Drama, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Game Spoilers, Gen, Investigations, Multi, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Post-Mass Effect 3, Post-Reaper War, Science Fiction, Series Spoilers, Shepard Twins, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Tags May Change, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-01-10 22:18:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 59,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12308979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vergil1989/pseuds/Vergil1989
Summary: When a mission to a research facility goes horribly wrong, the resulting fallout from an unstable energy reaction sends Gibbs and the team to a very distant future.  Now, four years after their initial arrival, the team takes on crimes of the future as they go up against aliens, galaxy wide mercenary gangs, shadowy intelligence organizations, and more.  It's just another day at the office as far as Gibbs and his highly trained team of Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are concerned.  The name on the building might have changed, but the job remains the same.





	1. Blind Woman's Bluff Part 1

**_Author’s Notes:_ **  First off, the usual copyright stuff.  We don’t own anything related to Mass Effect or NCIS alike.  Second off, this is set after the series is over for Mass Effect, so expect spoilers if you haven’t played them before.  As for NCIS, I am not nearly as well versed as I’d like to be since I fell way behind on the show, having only watched up to Season 7, where Ziva was rescued from the terrorist group that had been holding her hostage.  So this, will be taking place in no particular time between then and just as Jenny Shepard took over for NCIS as the director.  Whether or not she was still alive when events transpired to bring the team to their new present time has yet to be determined.

On a much more personal note, I am REAL happy to be writing again.  I’ve been….depressed and unmotivated for a long time, but some days it gets worse than others.  To put a long story short, I think it’s been this way long before my asshole dad was finally incarcerated when he tried to break into my mother’s house, because of the years of emotional and verbal abuse he put me and my family through.  It’s only now in recent months that I’m getting some much needed help for said long running issues, and this is, you could say, a means to celebrate letting some of that go.  It also explains why I rarely finish anything I’ve ever started though, but I sincerely hope to change that once the therapy starts up in November.

But all that aside, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?

=====================================================================

**Blind Woman's Bluff Part 1**

=====================================================================

**The Citadel, Kithoi Ward**

**The Taralos Amphitheater**

**March 2nd, 2195, 4:24 PM Local Time**

Nine years.  Nine years and the Citadel was still a wreck.  Granted, most of the galaxy was still in shambles after the Reaper War, but things were much better these days than they’d been, especially for people like Oriana Lawson.  The raven haired violinist was all smiles as she looked up to the empty seats on every side, knowing that the place would be packed in three days time when the performances began.  Excitement, the hope for a bright future, knowing that things were on the mend after the most brutal, merciless war the galaxy had ever seen was over, all of this and more made many all too happy to put their petty differences aside, and Oriana was more than happy to give them another reason to continue the peace that had been so hard won as she turned her gaze towards the multi-racial symphony orchestra that had been assembled for the coming performance.

But like her sister, Oriana knew true talent when she saw it as her steel blue eyes fell on the chestnut brown haired woman that was just sitting down in front of a matte black grand piano.  The young woman, eighteen, gray eyed, creamy pale skinned, was blind.  It was from a genetic defect, one that even their advanced genetics research hadn’t been able to fix in time to make a difference while she was still in the womb, but that didn’t stop Wendy Watson in the slightest.  The little smile she threw towards Oriana, sensing her gaze upon her, only proved what she already knew about the masterful pianist.

“Wendy.”  She said in greeting to the woman in a modest white dress that did little to detract from her beautiful figure.  If anything, Oriana felt slightly underdressed when compared against the black, low cut ensemble that her sister had sent from a very exclusive asari styled dress maker on Illium.  The fact there was an emergency shield generator hidden at the waist was just Miranda being her usually paranoid, overprotective self.  She had noticed, naturally, but at a glance and if you didn’t know what you were looking for, the casual observer would never see the thin layer of emitters woven through the otherwise very soft fabric.

“Ms. Lawson.”  Flexing long, delicate fingers, Wendy smiled as Oriana rolled her eyes at her.  “Yes I know, call you Ori, but I’m stubborn and too respectful for such informality.”

“Are you sure you’re blind?”  They shared a laugh that drew a few amused glances from their fellows.  It was an old song and dance between them, one that never failed to draw smiles out of their fellows within ear and eye shot.  Oriana paid them little mind as she closed the distance between her and Wendy, her hands loosely crossed across her stomach as the soft sounds of keys being struck with precision filled the air.

The slight cock to Wendy’s head as her face scrunched up in concentration told Oriana not to disturb her.  But that didn’t stop Wendy from speaking in turn as her fingers continued to dance lightly across the piano, each key turning a pale blue as they were pressed before the light disappeared once her fingers moved on.  “Sounds a little out of tune to me.  Too high on the hertz on the C key, too low on the E.  Either it’s an internal mechanical problem or someone programmed it wrong.  I’m leaning towards the latter.”

“You sure?  How….nevermind, I forgot who I’m talking to.”  Oriana corrected herself with a light chuckle that was matched by the bright smile on Wendy’s face.  “I’ll have someone come along to get it ready for the show.  Hopefully it won’t take long.”

“I imagine it won’t, Ms. Lawson.”  Oriana’s raised eyebrow only earned a little knowing grin from Wendy.  She couldn’t help but wonder if the pianist knew more about her ties than she was letting on with the way she’d said that.  “I’m blind, not deaf Ori.  You should never answer an email if you don’t want someone to eavesdrop on the keys you press.”

“Human bat woman.”  Oriana retorted, amused even as she made a mental note to soundproof her office in the foreseeable future.  That thought led to another that had her chuckling at herself.  “And now I’m turning into my sister.”

“That’s not-”  Oriana only had a split second to register the dawning horror on Wendy’s face as she got to her feet and ran right for her.  “Get down!”  She shouted as she grasped Oriana around the shoulders before dragging her down to the hard metal floor.

**_Ka-crack!_ **

====================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., outside city limits**

**5:41 PM Local Time**

How his house had survived the times and the war, a war he’d been four years late for, Gunnery Sergeant Leroy Jethro Gibbs did not know, nor did he really care all that much as he ran a sander across the wooden beams of the boat he was building.  His dark basement was one of the only things that had remained relatively unchanged.  The rest of the house had been knocked down and rebuilt with all the modern trappings, so he had put a bed roll out next to the stairwell leading up to the rest of the house.  He wasn’t about to be surrounded every hour of every day by all this time’s computerized crap.  He had enough of that just walking into the office these days.  Hell, the omni-tool doohickey on his right hand was all he’d tolerate on a good day, and that was only because it was somehow able to interact with the tiniest gesture of his fingers and hand, making it a near natural extension of himself.  McGee had tried to explain the technical details shortly after their...arrival, but Gibbs hadn’t had the patience to listen to another stream of technobabble from the otherwise talented agent.  And right on cue, no sooner had the thought crossed his mind did the orange holographic display activate without his input, pulling up a priority message alert from the Navy Yard.  Putting the hand tool down with a heavy sigh, Gibbs flicked a finger across the alert, opening the message at the same time.

_Gibbs, it’s Tony.  New boss wants us to hitch a ride to the Citadel.  Transport shuttle leaves in about two hours from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.  Vid call briefing on the flight._

_P.S. Boss, scuttlebutt says we were called out by name._

That got an arched silver gray eyebrow from Gibbs as he closed out the message before he grabbed his sidearm from beneath the wooden table, where he still kept most of his hand tools.  Once it was holstered and strapped to his hip, he grabbed his gray coat and slung it over one shoulder, flipping the light off on his way upstairs.  He _really_ hoped someone had a good explanation for ruining his weekend plans.  The short drive to the airport was at least enjoyable for the grunt.  He had to give the future this much credit, they certainly knew how to get around in style even if he again wasn’t a fan of all the technical BS attached to the dashboard.  Finding a place to set his ride down, Gibbs met the rest of his team in front of the transport shuttle, waving a physical badge at the guards standing by just as they began to approach.

“Tony!”  Gibbs called as he spotted the man dashing up the tarmac towards the shuttle, his bags bouncing against his back with every hurried step.

“Sorry boss, McGeek Spaceflight wouldn’t go above the speed limit.  I swear, you’d think he’d be ecstatic, driving a flying car right out of Bladerunner, but he instead drives like a little old lady going for her weekly rummy game.”  Tony shot towards his longtime friend and partner who only scoffed at the Italian just ahead of him as they boarded the shuttle together.

“And as I told you DiNozzo, I wasn’t about to try and drive past a krogan behind the wheel of a transport semi.  Have you _seen_ the documentaries detailing the Rachni Wars?  Pretty scary stuff what they’re capable of.”  The fear and awe in Timothy’s voice was unmistakable as the computer tech hurried along.

“Nope.  I was more interested in the asari during our integration classes.”  Timothy countered, a megawatt grin on his face as he tossed one of his bags towards his partner, who grunted when it hit his stomach before he’d been able to get his hands on it.

“Of course you were.”  McGee muttered, knowing full well where his partner’s ‘interests’ had no doubt been geared towards.

The steely eyed glare that Gibbs leveled on both him and Timothy as he turned to regard both men had them giving him hurried apologies.  Once his equipment and personal belongings were loaded on the shuttle, Gibbs found a seat just behind the front row, where a vid screen was located just behind the cockpit.  From his seat, he could see Ziva’s car pulling up just beside his own before the former Mossad agent gracefully exited the vehicle, waving a hand towards them to show she was present and accounted for.  Slinging her own bags over her lithe, deceptively powerful form, Ziva soon climbed aboard with Gibbs saying as she passed by, “You’re late.”

“My apologies Gibbs, traffic was congested.  Apparently, someone thought it a good idea to go for a joyride just as I was getting ready to leave my apartment block.  The police on the scene were not letting anyone by even when I flashed my badge, so I had to detour several blocks before finding my way here.  Do we know why we were called to the Citadel?”  Ziva asked, clearly irritated as she began to get her things squared away in the overhead compartment.

“Nope, but scuttlebutt says someone high up the food chain wanted us to get this case.”  Tony replied as he to began to put his bags away, while making it a point to stay out of Ziva’s way since unlike Kate, he was actually afraid of the Mossad agent.  He also respected her a great deal more given how many times she had saved his life, as well as the lives of most of the team at one point or another.  But like most people that preferred to keep breathing, he knew better than to get in her way.

“Do you make it a habit of listening to scuttlebutt, Agent DiNozzo?”  Gibbs asked without looking up from his seat, his arms crossed and his eyes closed as he settled in for the long flight.

“No, boss.  Only when it might be important.”

“Vid connection established.”  McGee stated as he finished tapping at his own omni-tool on his left wrist, drawing their gazes towards the front as an eerily familiar face appeared on the monitor.  Gibbs was no longer slouching in his seat as the director for NCIS appeared.  The red hair was lighter, the face a little softer, but the stern, front focused eyes and the way her face was set in such a determined, neutral expression that just oozed strength was hard to forget.

“Director.”  Gibbs said in greeting with a minute nod of his head.

“Gibbs.”  The Director replied as a second image appeared next to her own, that of a raven haired woman as she and another woman hit the deck.  “This was taken a little over an hour ago on the Citadel, in the Taralos Amphitheater in the Kithio Ward.  Three days from now, there’s going to be a mutli-racial symphony orchestra performing to raise money for reconstruction efforts of various colonies across the Traverse.  The project head is Oriana Lawson, sister to one Miranda Lawson, a former Cerberus VIP and rumored to be the second to the Illusive Man himself before his body was found on the Crucible during the final stages of the Reaper War.  Miranda would go on to help shut down the remnants of her former boss’s terrorist network, but she’s not the one you’re to investigate.”

Tony’s interest was immediately piqued as security footage was soon pulled up, showing that both Oriana and the other woman were okay as they stood and ducked for cover as more bullets rained down upon the stage, the rest of the symphony having already scattered.  “You want us to investigate the sister?”

“As well as any of her associates, find out who has a reason to have wanted to put a high powered sniper round through her skull.  And Agent DiNozzo, these people are extremely dangerous, if this does indeed have something to do with her sister.  Cerberus-”

“Was a pro-human terrorist group, responsible for countless assassinations, blackmail and extortion cases, and rumors abound they also had a hand in the ‘accidental’ exposure across several colonies to element zero in an effort to make more biotically capable children.”  Ziva and McGee both looked towards Tony in surprise, impressed that he actually knew half as much as he had spewed forth in such a rapid fashion.  “What?  Oh I see, no I wasn’t _just_ hot for teacher.  I even took notes.”

“Glad to see that you actually paid attention to the important things.”  The Director remarked calmly. “It appears as though I’ve underestimated you.”  Tony’s smirk died when he registered the sarcasm beneath her otherwise neutral tone, but she had since turned her attention towards Gibbs once more.  “And Agent Gibbs, try not to cause an international incident.  Get in, do your job, get out.  Most of the symphony members are ex military, retired after the War.”  The subtext was that they’d likely be sensitive to being under fire again after surviving the Reapers, which meant having navy cops nosing around would fray already thin nerves.

“Oh don’t worry Director, I can walk softly.”  Gibbs assured her, but his assurances didn’t sound all that sincere to anyone on the shuttle.  “Who’s the other girl in the footage?”

“Wendy Watson, a blind pianist prodigy.  If not for her hearing the cock of the rifle before it was fired, we’d need Doctor Mallard to do an autopsy instead of having you do an investigation.”

“Unless she was in on it.”  Ziva stated, and nearly immediately regretted it when Gibbs turned his steel eyed glare on her next.  Unlike most people however, she didn’t wilt as she leaned forward in her seat, one leg elegantly crossed at the knee.  “Oh come on Gibbs, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened.”

“You didn’t meet the last blind pianist we worked with.”  Tony said before Gibbs could give Ziva a piece of his mind.  “Nine year old girl, hell of a kid, had ears like a bat.  She helped us locate her mother by listening to a live video feed while Abby and McGeek here isolated her exact location.”

“Her mother was audibly crying and begging for help throughout most of the ordeal.”  McGee chimed in next, and while it didn’t change Ziva’s opinion, she understood what they were getting at.

“That little girl’s been gone for nearly two centuries, McGee.”  Ziva countered gently, reminding them all that they were all in the same boat.  Despite her efforts, it was still a blow to them to be reminded that they were stuck in a time not their own, and that Ms. Watson was far removed from the little girl they’d once known, however memorable their brief encounter had been.

Gibbs summed up their thoughts all the same as he sighed out, “Yeah, yeah I know.”

=========================

“First time on the Citadel?”  Several hours flight and a very brief layover later, Gibbs, well rested and yet only in a slightly better mood, stared down at the security detail that was awaiting their arrival.  The speaker’s smile didn’t fade though as the turian met the Gunny's stare, a respectful nod passing between them.  “C-Sec Lieutenant Commander Daxio Maximus, sniper 1st class in the Turian Hierarchy, most folk call me Dax.  Served at the front on Palavan until I took a shot to the right leg.”  Tapping a taloned finger against the cybernetic prosthetic in question, Dax looked up after pulling his pants leg back down to conceal the artificial limb.  “Heard about you Gunny, word is you’re also a sniper.”

“You’d be right.  You the officer first at the scene of the shooting?”

“I was sir.”  Dax replied as he fell in step besides Gibbs, all business as he began to lay out what he’d been able to discover.  “Both Ms. Watson and Lawson are pretty shaken up, but the latter is the one you’ll want to focus on, before her big sister comes to town with blood in her eye.”

“I take it you know about her ties then.”  It wasn’t a question as Gibbs checked the recording program on his omni-tool that made note taking quite a simple affair while allowing him to focus on the officer’s facial expressions and tone of voice.  Once he was sure it was working, he turned his gaze away from the omni-tool and leveled it on Dax’s tattooed face.  Tall like any turian, Daxio’s facial markings were a deep red, a series of whorls and lines that emphasized a pair of piercing green eyes set in the officer’s face.  Dressed in C-Sec officer blues, Dax was lightly armored but the twin hand cannons on his hips and the long barreled rifle strapped across his back were hard to miss, even if they were currently collapsed for easier transport from point to point.

But if the turian noticed he was being scrutinized, Dax didn’t react to it as they continued to walk down the deck towards the registration desks, located in front of the first of several security checkpoints.  “It’s one of those things that every agency knows, but no one likes to talk about.  Former terrorists turned heroes, having gained a measure of well earned infamy, thus making them virtually untouchable.  Oriana Lawson is a saint compared to her big sister, but even I have to admit that Miranda’s done a lot of good since turning on her old associates.”

“Doesn’t mean anything she did before should be forgotten or forgiven, Officer Dax.”  Gibbs countered, but he knew that he wasn’t here for Miranda.  “But I didn’t come halfway across the galaxy to talk about her, not unless it actually involves this case.”

“I know, so to get back on track, everything we have on Oriana’s troupe is being sent to Agent McGee there.  Witness statements, photos of the crime scene, including everything we could find at the sniper’s perch on the third floor balcony.  No image of the shooter, not even a flicker of a face, which means-”

“The sniper was cloaked.”  Ziva chimed in as she caught up with Gibbs and Dax who both turned to regard her.  “Military grade tactical cloaks allow the user to appear as if they’re completely invisible to every form of surveillance.  If they’re using a cloak, that means-”

“They’re ex military or they have access to military grade equipment.  Ziva!”

“Go over everything at the crime scene?”  While it was a question, Ziva was fairly certain she knew the answer, which was just as quickly confirmed by the little flash of a grin on Gibbs’ face.

“Take DiNozzo, have him sketch and start interrogating the members of the symphony, starting with the two victims.  McGee!”

“Pull security footage, and compare them to the ones we were sent.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and get an image of the sniper or find discrepancies between the two, on it boss.”

“And have phone and financial records sent back to Abby, have her and her assistant go over everything from three weeks before the symphony arrived to now, have her report anything that looks hinky.”  While technically no one used phones anymore, the intent was the same as far as Gibbs was concerned.

“On it boss.”  McGee replied, catching on despite this as he fought the urge to correct Gibbs’ terminology of what was the preferred method of communication these days.  “Agent Dax, know where I can get ahold of-”

“I’ll lead the way once we get to the theater, kid.”  McGee smiled, grateful for the offered assistance as Dax picked up the pace to the nearby C-Sec issued van.

“You know it’s nice.”  McGee mused as they piled into the dark blue van before the vehicle lifted off the ground with a soft rumble as the element zero powered thrusters came to life.

“And what’s that McGeek?”  Tony asked as he strapped himself in besides a quietly amused Ziva.

“The locals cooperating with us instead of trying to impede our investigation.”

“Sure it has nothing to do with the fact Officer Dax here sounds like a certain, handsome scoundrel of a tight pants wearing captain, McSerenity?”  Dax laughed loudly at that while McGee tried to stumble across a defense against his partner’s playful accusation.

“Oh don’t worry about it kid, I’ve been called far worse things.”  Dax said as he patted McGee’s shoulder before leaning back in his seat as much as his rifle on his back allowed.  “So what’s ya thinking Agent Gibbs?”

“How ‘bout you let us get through some of the witness interrogations before you start asking leading questions, LT Commander.”  The chastisement was enough to return them to the matter at hand, and that was to find their mystery shooter.

====================

**The Citadel, Kithoi Ward**

**The Taralos Amphitheater**

**March 3rd, 2195, 2:04 AM Local Time**

The theater was bustling with activity.  No matter where they looked, the agents could see C-Sec officers scurrying about, visibly scanning every nook and cranny with their omni-tools in hopes of finding and collecting evidence.  Yet Ziva and McGee couldn’t help but notice that most of the other officers weren’t getting up close and personal with most of those same surfaces they scanned.

If Gibbs had accompanied them he certainly would have frowned in disapproval of them walking across _his_ crime scene in such a manner. The most obvious clues such as the bullet holes in the tribune were easily visible to the naked eye, but the officers currently investigating the large room were looking for clues that could help identify the perpetrator.

“This wasn't a professional.” Ziva stated the moment she laid eyes on the crime scene.

“Why so certain?”  McGee asked, more to see where her thoughts had gone than any shred of doubt in her assessment of the scene.  She had proven countless times before that she knew her craft, and she’d been a very quick study under Gibbs’ tutelage.

“He shot multiple times, and yet no shot hit the target. The first shot was planned, calculated, but once he missed his target, he panicked.  Look, the rest of the bullet holes are spread out erratically.  He simply pulled the trigger in hopes of hitting her instead of taking aim again.”  Jabbing a finger towards the stage and the area around it, Ziva waved her hand dismissively at the nearest officer as he gave her a strange look.  “Perhaps if certain people actually got up close they’d notice the finer details.”

“It _is_ two in the morning for these people Ziva.”  McGee was quick to point out as he finished taking pictures of the scene.  “Most of these guys have likely been up all shift.  Doesn’t help there’s no day night cycle up here, people get up, go to work, go out, and go back home at all hours of the day.  This station truly never sleeps as a result.”

“That is still no excuse for sloppiness.”

“Of the processing of the crime scene or the shooter’s performance?”  McGee asked, uncertain as to what Ziva was truly upset about.

“Both!”  Realizing how that had likely sounded, Ziva cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed for the outburst, and glanced towards the other officers who made it a point to quickly look elsewhere.  It was then that she saw something just beneath one of the front row seats.  Cocking her head to the side, Ziva knelt down and glanced under the chair before waving McGee over.  Pulling out an evidence bag, she took it from him without needing to look where his hand was before she picked up the object she had located.  “Piece of cloth, likely from a sash of some kind.  It must have gotten caught on something when the shooter tried to escape.”  She said as she brought the material out into the open.  It was hardly more than a scrap, but the deep blue color with the hint of some kind of darker thread pattern was distinctive to the woman.

“It’s quarian.”  One of the nearby officers said, which earned him two probing stares from both Ziva and McGee.  “There’s a couple of quarian techs with the troupe.  Personally I’d not trust them within a light year of something this big, but Ms. Lawson has...funny ideas about people.”

“You mean she’s not xenophobic.”  Ziva all but spat out in open disgust of such backwards thinking.

“You spend enough time around a suit rat you’d know better too.”

“Ziva, Ziva.”  McGee wisely got between her and the small minded human before she could decide that he’d be better off with a broken neck.  That didn’t stop him from giving the C-Sec officer a piece of his mind though once Ziva backed off.  “Thanks for your input officer, I’ll be sure to pass a kind word or three to your superiors.”

“Do what you will, agent. They’ll know who to trust.”

Once they had collected what they could find, they left to grab the video surveillance footage, with Ziva fuming every step of the way.  “You’d think after all these years people like him would have died out.”

“Ignorance is still a problem apparently.  It’s human nature to fear what we don’t understand, it doesn’t help that the Council allowed rumors and false propaganda to spread about the quarians centuries ago.”

“Over a mistake they made that cost them their home world, yes I’m aware.  That doesn’t excuse his behavior.”

“You shouldn't.” Tony, who had thus far been uncharacteristically silent, piped in.  “Still, we should try to avoid bad blood with the local law enforcement. I’ll try to bridge the gap.” He announced and promptly made his way towards a rather well endowed asari that was busy putting up barriers around the bullet holes and graced her with a charming grin before he began to quietly talk with her.  Drawing in his note book with one hand, he gestured first towards the crime scene and a moment later towards her, to which the C-Sec officer began to blush.

“Bridge away.”  McGee muttered under his breath before returning his attention to Ziva.  “And trust me Ziva, I’m not a fan of it either.  Unfortunately, even if we say something to his superiors, they likely won’t do a damn thing about that officer once it happens again and we’re long gone.”  Ducking their way into the security office, McGee sighed as he nodded his thanks to the tech that moved aside when he flashed his badge.  “Thanks.  Okay, pulling up the security feeds for the last few days.  Hopefully we get lucky and find something we can bring back to the boss.”

“And if not, maybe I can beat out some frustration on that ignorant sack of-”  McGee’s heavy sigh was enough to silence Ziva, but not quite enough to defuse her lingering irritation as he began to sift through hours and hours of video data.

“Is she always like that?”  Dax asked as he slipped into the small, computer packed office just behind them.  “And I see you found the place alright.”

“Sorry Dax, but you wouldn’t wait around either with a boss like ours, and yes, she is.”  McGee replied without ever looking away from the bank of video monitors in front of him.  He was taken aback though when he saw something almost immediately after Oriana’s people began to file into the theater their first day there.  “Oh no.”

“What?”  Ziva asked as she turned her attention to the frozen image that McGee had blown up for closer examination.  “Oh.  Don’t say a word.”

“Wasn’t going to, wasn’t about to give that guy the satisfaction.”  The image he’d blown up showed a quarian tampering with the security on an emergency exit on the third floor.  Despite the grainy, pixelated image, there was enough of a clear picture to make out the hood and the three fingered hands of the very slender, skinny humanoid shape.

On a guess, McGee was willing to bet that when the door was opened, no alarms or sensors would be activated, allowing him to slip in and out, almost completely undetected once the job was done.  “Image is too grainy and pixelated to get a positive ID from here, but he’s certainly got his hands on a security node just outside that emergency exit.  Probably gave himself a number of clearances into the system, which would allow him access to areas normally restricted to the public.”

“Then why didn’t he delete the camera’s footage of himself?”  Dax asked before Ziva could do it herself as they both leaned in over McGee’s shoulders.

A quick shrug and they backed off, giving Timothy some breathing room.  Once they were no longer breathing down his neck, McGee continued.  “Probably didn't know it was there, or perhaps it’s not part of the same network.  The camera angle suggests it’s looking down from a nearby street corner rather than attached to the theater itself.  But even then I think he’d be smart enough to gain access remotely if he could give himself access like that.”

“Or I’m right and he really is an amateur.”  Mused a no longer angry Ziva as she casually played with a knife she normally kept at her waist.

“Or that.” McGee conceded easily and shrugged. “Certainly wasn't stupid enough to overlook something like this, so probably new, which begs the question.  Who hires a newbie to kill someone as prominent as Oriana Lawson?”  That was the question, and Gibbs they knew would not rest until he had an answer.

 **_End Notes:_ **  I’ll admit, I’ve never written anything like this before.  I’ve done plenty of stories, but no mysteries of any kind, so this is flexing creative muscles I didn’t even know I had.  It’s been pretty amazing and fun though, hehe.  It helps that I have a very excellent partner and dear friend in the form of Nomad-117, although we both miss Archer83 a great deal.  Long story, RL has gotten in the way of his ability to get online in the slightest, but we hope he’s doing okay on his end.  At any rate, here’s hoping you guys enjoy despite our amateurish level of skill in doing something this unique, at least for us.  See ya!


	2. Blind Woman's Bluff Part 2

**Author’s Note** :  Ugh, I hate trying to guess time zones lol.  I’m doing the best I can to keep things relatively ‘realistic’ in that sense, but I’m not exactly worried about it either.  I’m far more worried about the actual mystery and finding believable ways to properly break down each and every step and making sure the pieces are able to be put together.  Again though, Nomad-117 and I haven’t done a story like this before, a mystery I mean, so if we’ve made any mistakes, feel free to point at us and laugh.  Lol okay, maybe not that, but any kind but thoughtful criticism and feedback is appreciated.  I DO however want to take a moment to address something one of our ‘reviewers’ pointed out.

To sum it up, he called us out on our habit of never finishing anything we start, and while I admit that we have had a great deal of trouble doing so, I DO however want to point out that we’re not going to update a story if we don’t have the motivation and the inspiration to deliver a quality, content rich chapter.  It’s unfair to you, the readers, if we give you a much lower quality update just for the sake of putting something out there instead of taking the time to do such a thing the justice it deserves, and we DO have real life concerns and problems, just like everyone else.  Such problems and concerns impact us emotionally as much as anyone, and prevent us from, again, finishing what we start or at the very least, prevent us from putting the level of work we’d like so that we keep up a certain quality you guys and gals deserve from us and have come to know when we’re actually ABLE to do so.  Just be considerate is all I ask, instead of making demands upon our time without thinking, “Gee, maybe there’s a good reason why there hasn’t been an update to my favorite story for the better part of a year, and my badgering them for a half assed update might be a bad idea?”

Thank you, and have a pleasant day everyone else who actually understands what  _ some  _ people clearly don’t.

=========================

**Blind Woman’s Bluff Part 2**

=========================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C. Ballistics Lab**

**March 2nd, 2195, 8:47 PM Local Time**

Abby Sciuto couldn’t help but smile as she remembered the first few weeks in this new time and place.  Despite how...neurotic she’d been at the beginning, the simple fact that her...mild obsession with UFOs and alien life had born fruit, had helped to give her something immensely positive to focus on.  That and it had made her giddy to rub McGee’s nose in it since he’d been the first to debunk the ‘hoax’ that were crop circles that had popped up numerous times around the world, a relative topic because someone had thought it’d be a good idea to a make crop circle in their field in an effort to cover up a murder.  Granted, he’d been right about that much, but only so far that the crop circles had been fake, not that alien life didn’t exist.  Humanity simply hadn’t come into contact with them, as far as anyone knew at least.

“What are you smiling about Abby?”  The assistant technician, an asari named Athame Jina Mas, chuckled, her youthful, purple face pulled up into a grin as she bustled about the lab while Abby waited for the results of the tests she had cooking.

“Just remembering the early days Athame.  And I gotta say, being named after a goddess, rocks!”  Abby emphasized her glee by nodding her head as if she were rocking out at a concert, fingers positioned in the old ‘hand horn’ sign.

A gesture that had Athame chuckling right before the video enhancement program they’d been running finally cleaned up the images they had been sent by McGee.  Turning to the monitor, both women grinned victoriously now that they had a better image to work from.  Kicking off the ground, Abby pushed her rolling chair over to a nearby keyboard and began tapping furiously at the keys.  “Running a search for our scumbag now.  Here’s hoping our friends in the Migrant Fleet are feeling cooperative.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it Ms. Sciuto, they tend to protect their own people rather fiercely, even if they aren’t born on the Fleet itself, and the unfortunate truth is that most of the galaxy would be happy to see the quarians drop off the face of the map.”  Atheme replied as she continued to work at the spare station, going over the ballistic scans they’d been sent from the theater shooting.  “Looks like our boy likes military grade armaments to go with his tactical cloak.  These results say that he was using some powerful weaponry.  If I were to guess, he got them as most of the gangs no doubt have these days, by scavenging through any place where a heavy military presence might have been, which was almost every planet from here to the Skyllian Verge during the war nine years ago.”

“But if that’s the case, then they can be tracked through the military databases.”  Abby replied but a quick look from her partner in crime, metaphorically speaking, stopped her from moving from her spot.

“Assuming again that the information is up to date, which, again is unlikely from all the destruction and worse.”  Athame tensed up as she tried not to think of  _ that  _ particular point in her long life, but it was a losing fight.

“Hey,” Abby’s hand on her shoulder a moment later and her mere comforting presence was enough to pull her back to the present as Athame shook her head before looking towards the dark haired, pig tailed Goth at her side, “you don’t have to do this you know.  If it’s too much, I can take over.”

“No, I’ll be fine.  Just….bad memories is all.”  Athame sighed but offered Abby a wan smile, before a mischievous gleam appeared in her whiskey colored eyes.  “And besides, you’d be helpless without me to run all of the advanced tech in this lab of ours.”

“I can still kill you and not leave a shred of forensic evidence though.”  Abby countered, matching the other woman’s grin with one of her own.

“Should I come back or do you two need a room?”  Seeing Tony’s face on a nearby monitor, both women gave him their best impression of a ‘Gibbs glare’.  He stared right back in open if playful defiance despite their efforts to intimidate him, “You know that loses some of its effect several million light years away right?”

“Until you come back to the office you mean.”  Athame retorted playfully, a just noticeable shimmer of her biotic ability manifesting itself before she reigned herself back.

“Good point.”  Tony relented and shuddered uncomfortably.  “You sure you aren’t related to the boss?”  He winced when Gibbs slapped the back of his head, the hit hard enough that both asari and Goth grimaced in sympathy as Tony groaned audibly.  “Just about to brief the labbies back home about what we’ve found thus far boss.”

“That a fact DiNozzo?  Abby, how’s the new tech support holding up?”

“Considering she’s lasted longer than my last assistant that tried to kill me when I discovered he was trying to frame Tony?  Pretty awesome.”  Athame’s raised eye ridge had Abby chuckling in mild embarrassment.  “Long story, but to sum it up, the bastard used my own craft for his dark purposes to try and frame Tony.  Granted, Tony has a tendency to piss people off, mostly women, but he isn’t a sadistic dismembering psychopath-”

“Abby!  The case?”  Gibbs demanded while at the same time forcing the two to focus on the task at hand.

“Sorry.  Athame, take it away!”  Abby dramatically gestured towards the asari who was more than happy to do as she asked, another warm chuckle escaping her as she tapped away at the controls in front of her.

“Sending you an enhanced image of the suspected shooter now.  You were right, he’s quarian.”  A few rapid keystrokes on the holographic keyboard later, and Gibbs and Tony’s screen were filled with the image of the quarian.  “We’ve already sent a message to the Migrant Fleet, as well as a number of databases across the galaxy.  Hopefully someone might be willing to talk, otherwise we might be waiting a while if those on Rannoch don’t spill the beans on this guy first.”

“Semper Fi?”  Gibbs asked, having a feeling he knew the answer to his own question.

“Of a sort,” Athame agreed,  “especially since most quarians are still considered to be never-do-wells by most everyone in the galaxy.  They protect their own and make no apologies for it, and I can’t blame them.  It doesn’t help that most of them have served in some capacity within their armed forces, more out of a sense of duty to the Fleet’s continued survival, which is ingrained into them from a very young age.”  Athame stopped typing when something came to her and she raised a long, purple finger before going to another of the machines in the lab.  “We haven’t gotten the physical evidence from the shooting yet, but the scans might be enough to give us an idea of where this guy came from.”

“How?”

“Every sash attached to a quarian’s suit is like a fingerprint, tied to a specific ship, often of their birth, sometimes of the ship they apprentice on.  We just have to match it with any holo pics from the various ships and the people who might have served on them, from the Fleet.  Despite their secluded nature, the quarians leave to go on a journey that marks their capability to function as independent adults among their people.  They don’t go back home to the Fleet until they’ve proven themselves, most often by sending something useful back home.”

“You’re thinking by matching his sash to a specific ship, you’ll be able to narrow down the search.”  Tony chimed in, visibly impressed by their ingenuity.

“Exactly.”  Athame declared proudly as she began to pull up pictures of various quarians that had made their Pilgrimages or had at least started one.  Once they left the Fleet, they were easier to keep track of as a result.  It’d take time, but by focusing on similar patterns and the dark color of the sash fragment, it was a much smaller search parameter that she set her personal VI to work on.

Gibbs, quietly impressed, nodded his head in approval.  “Do it you two.  Abby, whatcha got?”

“Not much without the actual ‘bullets’, but from the scan results we have, it looks like all of the shots were fired by the same gun.  If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say our boy got his hands on a,” a few rapid clicks on the keyboard and a bit of mousework later, and Abby had another image of a sniper rifle schematic popped up on Tony and Gibbs’ side of the galaxy, “an M-97 Viper.  Rosenkov Materials is considered a premier Russian based armor manufacturer by the Citadel, but they also have a series of pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles that are highly sought after.  Their rifles make some of the old rifles seem like peashooters.  Twelve rounds a clip, two-forty rounds per minute, this guy could take out a large group in a few seconds if he was a better marksmen.”

“Be glad he wasn’t because the results say he modified his ammo to carry an electrical charge.  If you look at the bullet holes themselves, there’s carbon scarring around the impact sites, and there’s a notation that says there was the smell of ozone emanating from the center of each hole.  Normally, tech specialists use electrical rounds to short out machines and shields, leaving the target vulnerable to further damage.  But to an unshielded, living person, every shot that hit would have had electrical energy arcing through multiple individuals, and with semi-auto fire on, that would have been a lot of people.”

“Like a taser?” Tony asked for clarification.

“Only if the taser would cause your muscles to violently spasm and cramp up with such force, that you’d shatter your own bones.” Abby informed him and shook her head. “Wouldn't matter where he hit you, either the shot, the electricity, or the damage from either would kill you.”

“Ouch.  So crispy critters then, good to know.”  Tony muttered, his face locked in an uncomfortable grimace at the thought of what kind of damage someone like their hitman could do.  “Now I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have called in sick.  I’ll be talking to Ms. Watson, boss, hopefully she and her friend will be willing to give us something before our wannabee hitman lights up the night.”

===================================

**The Citadel, Zakara Ward**

**C-Sec Office, Interrogation**

**March 3rd, 2195, 3:12 AM Local Time**

The metallic blue walls and the chilly atmosphere was disconcerting for most people.  The two way mirror on one side of the room faced a listening post, where Gibbs watched Oriana Lawson try to appear calmer than she no doubt felt.  The minute shake of her hands and the way she kept nervously glancing at the door said as much.  Being shot at tended to do that to most people, but he had to give her this much credit, the woman was doing better than most civilians who’d been in similar situations.  With what he’d seen of her dossier though, that wasn’t so surprising.  The only problem was that, even with everything he’d seen since popping up in this time period, her life read like a science fiction novel, and not one he’d ever touch, even with a ten inch long stick.

“So what do you think boss?”  Tony asked, his mind a whirl after what Abby and Athame had just dropped on them.

“I don’t know DiNozzo, but something tells me it’s not gonna be so straightforward as a nut with a heavily modified sniper rifle.”  Gibbs let him chew on that as he left the monitoring station, entered the hallway, and walked the short distance to the interrogation room all in the span of a few heartbeats.  Oriana looked up as Gibbs sat down, and with a nod towards the other chair, she sat down across from him.  “You know why you’re here?”

Oriana crossed her arms once she was situated in the other chair, understandably upset at the mess she was in.  “Because I’m a target, yet you’re treating me like a suspect.  You tell me what I’m to think of this situation Agent….?”

“Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  And what makes you think you’re a suspect?”  Gibbs asked, his voice soft and calm as he leaned back in his seat while idly tapping at the omni-tool on his wrist.  “Far as I saw from security footage, you were the one the shooter was after.”  Of course that didn’t mean she wasn’t right, but most people were under suspicion until proven otherwise in Gibbs’ mind.

Oriana held up a finger as she began to list off her reasoning for her suspicions, “Yet the officers refused to answer my questions, I wasn’t allowed to contact my sister, and I was politely told to stay here.   _ And _ , everywhere I went one or two officers followed.  Tell me Agent Gibbs, are all victims treated like this?”

She was sharp, he was forced to concede, and the challenging glare she sent his way told him that she wasn't afraid to stand up to him.  Just what he needed, more stubborn women in his life.  “Well, call them paranoid but most people tend to get a little antsy when they hear who your sister really is.  But while I share their distrust, I’m not investigating Miranda.  I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this.  Why don’t you start by giving me something to work with, starting with who this man is.”  With that, he pulled up the enhanced image of the shooter tampering with the theater’s security.  He didn’t react when Oriana’s sharp glare flickered to slight surprise.  “I see you know him.”

“I hired him, yes,” she admitted, “but I never thought he’d take a shot at me.  He and another quarian are technical experts, helping my troupe to prepare the theater for the fundraising event being sponsored by the Sirta Foundation in two and a half days from now, and there is still a lot of work ahead of us.  I’d  _ prefer  _ to have this situation resolved before then.”

“Oh I have a feeling it will be, with you on a slab if we don’t get some answers.  So, you got a name for our shooter or did you not bother to look past his visor?”  He asked, hoping to get her riled up so she’d let something slip.

He wasn’t disappointed when she began to fume more visibly in response to his quiet antagonizing.  “I have over fifty people in the troupe to watch over, many of them ex militia, which at the time of the war was the equivalent of handing a civilian a weapon and expecting them to protect themselves, if not actual military veterans, which means they require constant care if they happen to have a ‘bad day’.  I have caterers to organize, food deliveries to receive and put to use for the banquet dinner-”

“Do you have a name, or don’t you?”  He repeated his question while interrupting her tirade.

“I have a list.”  Oriana shot back before she sighed and began tapping furiously at the device on her arm.  At least, she made the motion to do so, but she paused when she remembered it’d been taken from her upon being brought to the C-Sec building.  “I’m a bit OCD about the finer details, a habit I got from my sister in case you’re curious.  Having my schedule upended like this has put me in a very foul mood.”

“You could just give me the na-”

“I would love to, but your charming colleagues saw fit to take my omni-tool.  I might contact ‘unsavoury’ people after all.” The young woman bit back, completely unimpressed by his own glare. “You should ask them.”  No sooner had the words left her mouth did Gibbs’ message alert pinged, which Oriana responded to by rolling her eyes.  “Scratch that, it seems you have it now.”

He mentally had to resist the urge to think of her as a future ex wife as Gibbs opened the message, a new BOLO having been prepared with information detailing the quarian’s name, last known location, etc popping up on his arm.  “Jel’na Narra vas Rannoch.”  He read off, as he scanned the document.

“Ship names normally precede a quarian’s given name, but since they were able to reclaim the homeworld, I didn’t get his ship name if that’s what you’re after.”  Leaning forward, Oriana folded her hands in front of her and sighed tiredly.  But Gibbs could see that she was mustering her strength for something before she spoke anew, “I do appreciate what you’re trying to do Agent Gibbs, but if Jel’na truly is the one you’re after, then you’re going to need help.”

“Offering yourself as bait, Ms. Lawson?”

“If that’s what it takes to end this nightmare.  After my biological father….after  _ our  _ father kidnapped me and brought me to Horizon nine years ago, I was powerless.  After….after it was over, I promised myself I’d never be that helpless again.  I can’t just sit here and do nothing Agent Gibbs.  I just can’t.”

“I can hardly use you as bait as long as I haven't exhausted all my other options.” Gibbs told her dryly, though he was silently impressed by her willingness to take such risks.  “For now, it’s probably best if you remain here, or at least have a police escort to ensure your safety.”  He could assign Ziva and a couple of other officers to the task, while having the former Mossad agent continue to probe Oriana for answers.  For now though, he had something else in mind.  “Tell me about your sponsor.”

Oriana nodded and blew out a breath as she mentally pulled up what information she had about the Sirta Foundation.  Gibbs could practically see the gears in her mind whirling much in the same way McGee or Abby’s did before she said, “The Sirta Foundation is one of the best medical corporations that have done amazing work in the fields of curing diseases and genetic defects.  Their efforts in bioengineering, medical research, and genetics has allowed for countless breakthroughs, and they’re the ones that created medi-gel, an invaluable aid both in and off the field.  They’re also a non profit organization, and their reputation in humanitarian efforts is second to none.  While they’ve had some issues in the past, they’ve steadily begun to pull themselves out of complete bankruptcy.  While they don’t typically rebuild entire colonies, the money earned during the event will go a long way in providing basic necessities to hundreds of thousands of people.”  It was here that Oriana stroked the bottom of her chin as she leaned back in her chair.  “Which might actually explain a few things.”

=======================

Anthony DiNozzo couldn’t help but grin as he leaned back in the chair across from Wendy Watson, his feet planted on the table’s surface as he casually observed the blind pianist while also opening up an old game app on his omni-tool,  “Hah!  Hehehe.  Funny what you can find on the extranet these days.  Turns out there’s a pretty big market for old arcade games.  Hell, most of our alien neighbors go gaga for 20th century ‘artifacts’ like a pair of Gucci shoes, Armani threads, you name it.  I made a pretty penny selling off my old black leather jacket I had stuffed in a closet in Washington.  You ever been?”  He asked suddenly, his gaze flicking away from his game altogether just as he tapped the pause button.  To the casual observer, he wasn’t taking the interrogation seriously.

But those that knew him knew better than to underestimate Tony.  To someone like Wendy, who relied far more on her other senses, she too could hazard a guess along the same lines.  “I assume your question has a point, Agent DiNozzo?”  She smiled, not unkindly, when he began to ask how she knew his name since he hadn’t introduced himself, until she flicked her unseeing eyes to the two way mirror just behind him.  “When you have ears like mine, you learn to filter out the extraneous noise and focus far more on the important things.  I was born in the dark, but I ‘see’ more than anyone else because of my blindness.”

“Certainly explains how you heard the guy preparing to take a shot at your boss.  Good looking gal by the way, a little too high strung for my tastes.  You on the other hand, would be right up my alley.  Pretty, talented, intelligent according to your GPA from Grissom Academy.  Graduated in the top five percent of your class from one of their liberal arts programs.  Not bad.”

“Thank you, but I imagine your tastes are quite...diverse.”  She teased even as her cheeks burned under his flattering remarks.  “And yes, before you ask Agent DiNozzo, their biotics program is, in most cases, the real reason anyone attends Grissom, but people like me, who were born without eezo in their bodies, are still celebrated for our accomplishments.  I had many friends during my time there, biotic or otherwise, many who would say the same thing.”

“That you’re much more capable than your slight disadvantage would lead the uninformed to assume, or so it says on your transcripts I have here.”  While she couldn’t see it, Tony tapped at the information now dominating the screen of his omni-tool in lieu of his game from a moment ago.  “So tell me Ms. Ray Charles,” DiNozzo’s faux accent he adopted and his reference to a famous blind pianist had Wendy chuckling again, which had him grinning in response, “how well do you know Ms. Lawson?”

“Well enough.”  She replied and sighed, her beautiful smile disappearing as they finally got to the point of all this.  “She might be a bit obsessive and a perfectionist, but she is an incredibly kind and compassionate person.  She also understands what it is to persevere in the face of adversity, albeit in her own right.  She’s dedicated, talented with a violin, and she makes a delicious pot of coffee.  I can’t count the number of times we’ve simply sat and talked about our day.  I respect her a great deal, but she doesn’t like to talk about her brief encounter with Henry Lawson, her biological father, not her true father.  The family that adopted her years ago, according to her, are actually human compared to the man that had her grown from his own flesh.”

She had certainly answered his question, but as much as Tony wanted to ask more, he had something else occupying his attention when a message from Abby popped up in front of him.  “That I can understand.  My old man wasn’t exactly father of the year material, but I suppose I got off lightly compared to her and her older sister.  I suppose we should get to the real reason of this little back and forth though.  You know Jel’na Narra vas Rannoch?”

Tony frowned when Wendy shook her head in response.  “I’m afraid not.”

He laughed and slapped at his right leg before crossing his arms over his chest.  “Ya know, I’d love to take you at your word, and if we hadn’t found a few minutes of recording of you and Jel’na in front of a traditional sushi shop in Zakara Ward, I’d be happy to let this go.”  He was no longer smiling as he let his feet hit the floor and he leaned forward.  “So why are you lying to me Ms. Watson?”

“I’m not-”

A few taps at his omni-tool and an audio file attached to the video began to play, silencing her denial on the spot.   _ “Nine years.  I didn’t think I’d ever see you after what we survived.” _

Jel’na’s distinctively synthesized voice lost little of the sincere surprise both Tony and Wendy could hear in the video recording.   _ “I’m just impressed you remember me at all, Wendy.  I was….a very different person then.” _

_ “We were children...in a very bad place.” _  Wendy countered with a sad sigh and a shake of her head.   _ “You protected me though as best you could despite that, and we made it, together.” _

_ “Only because we were lucky and were some of the first off the planet.” _  Jel’na retorted angrily, but sighed as he placed one three fingered hand fell on Wendy’s wrist, gently brushing his thumb against her skin.   _ “Don’t get me wrong though Wendy, I’m happy to see you again, but I’m...you shouldn’t be around me.  You might not like what you ‘see’.  I’ve lost too much to ever be the same little boy you once knew.” _

_ “Then tell me.” _  Wendy softly countered as she put her free hand over his own, their ordered food forgotten as she ‘stared’ into his visor covered face.

_ “I’d...I’d like that.” _  He replied right before Tony paused the video.

“So, what was it you were saying about not knowing him?”

“You have his voice, but you don’t have his name right.”  Countered an audibly shaken up Wendy as her long, delicate fingers clenched into fists and relaxed.  “I wouldn’t have known him if I hadn’t heard him talking to the other quarian tech on Oriana’s team.  It might have been nine years, but time does little to change one’s syntax and patterns of speech.  It helped that when he saw me, he recognized me almost as fast as I did him.  But I don’t recognize his name, which means it’s a fake.  …..Which means his warning had more weight than I realized, or...it might be better to say than I wanted to believe.”  Tony watched as Wendy heavily sighed and let her hands fall to the table, her face falling visibly at the same time as the realization her old ‘friend’ was the same man had shot at her and Oriana, hit home.

“Yeah I’m starting to get that impression.”  He was also getting the impression that Wendy truly hadn’t known what Jel’na was up to.  He frowned curiously though when she leaned back and put the fingers of her left hand against her temple, rubbing as if she had a headache.  “Feeling alright Ms. Watson?”

“Y-yeah, at least I think so.  I’ve just had a headache that won’t go away since the shooting.  You probably didn’t notice, but that first shot grazed my cheek on its way past.  I smelled ozone and felt the crackle of electricity on my skin as it passed, moments before the pain hit, but I was far more concerned with getting Oriana out of there to think much about it at the time.”  Turning her right cheek towards him, Tony made a thoughtful noise when he saw the slight, off color patch of medi-gel someone had sprayed onto the cut, sealing it to staunch any bleeding.  “It’s not the first time I’ve been shot at, or heard the sound of gunfire.  Nine years ago I was on Earth when the Reapers hit.  I, like countless others, lost most of my family in a single day, but I and my friend were fortunate to be picked up by a group of soldiers shortly after the invasion started.  It’s how I know the difference between an N7 Eagle from an N7 Hurricane just from the noise of it unfolding alone.”

“Oh.”  What else could he say to that?  Sure he hadn’t been around during that time, but Tony, like the rest of the team, had certainly heard all of the horror stories involving the race of hyper advanced machines.  But his gaze was soon pulled towards an alarming sight when Wendy pulled her hand away from her temple, and a clump of her dark brown hair came with it.  His growing horror was matched by the look of dread on the woman’s face as her hand visibly shook, knowing that something was terribly wrong.

“Wha-?”  Her surprised was cut off when the door burst open, and Gibbs ran in, a large plastic container in hand just as she violently threw up the contents of her stomach.

“She’s been poisoned.”  Gibbs explained to a stunned DiNozzo, his omni-tool showing the results of Abby’s most recent batch of tests on the ‘bullet’ fragments she had finally received.  Tony only needed to look at the screen for a moment to see the flashing word at the end of the document in question.

“Polonium 210.”  Breathed a horrified Anthony as his mind filled with images of radiation stricken people, their hair falling out in clumps, their bodies dying slowly, painfully as they struggled just to breathe, let alone much of anything else as lesions, cancerous growths, and worse spread throughout their bodies or opened up across their skin.  Radiation sickness of any kind was no joke, and he’d seen the results for himself more than he’d like to think about.  Ziva had briefly fallen in love with a man who had been exposed to radiation in an attempt to cover up a crime, so he could guess what her response would be when word reached her, if it hadn’t already.  Jel’na, or whatever his name was, had just jumped from dangerous to monstrous in as many seconds as he and Gibbs gingerly helped Wendy to her feet.  “We need to get her to a hospital, boss.”

“EMTs are already on their way DiNozzo.”  No surprise, but Tony was just glad that Gibbs was the one in charge as they led Wendy out of the cell and down the hall.  This case had just gotten a lot more interesting.


	3. Blind Woman's Bluff Part 3

**Author’s Notes:**  I’m sorry for the long winded rant, (especially if you’re reading this from AO3 and have no idea who it was I was ranting about), but it needed to be said and I make no apologies for it.  I’m just sorry I had to say anything about it at all, but that aside, for the rest of you guys and gals, I’m glad to have you along for the ride.  As a quick warning though, this one gets a little depressing.  Nothing too big, but from what I’ve seen of radiation sickness and nuclear power in general is nothing to make light of, in any capacity.

**=======================**

**Blind Woman’s Bluff Part 3**

**=======================**

**The Citadel, The Presidium**

**Huerta Memorial Hospital**

**March 3rd, 2195, 9:37 AM Local Time**

Tony had been right to worry.  Sitting beside Wendy Watson’s bedside, Ziva kept one eye on the door and another on the tubes that now ran from the near dead woman to various machines about the brightly lit room.   She had seemed so formidable not a few short hours ago despite her blindness, but that had changed in such a short amount of time after it was discovered Wendy was suffering from radiation poisoning. Various symptoms had already manifested their hold across her body.  The headaches and nausea were just the beginning, she had already experienced some hair loss back at the C-Sec office.  A glance at the scans of her vital organs revealed that a number of them were not functioning as they should, and even more worryingly, a fever had taken hold of her body, making it seem as if the young woman was burning up from the inside, even as she shivered weakly.  She had yet to vomit blood, but as it were, it was only a matter of time until the rest of the symptoms would reveal themselves.

While Ziva would’ve preferred to have hunted down Jel’na like the rabid dog he was, the much more logical part of the former Mossad agent was glad that Gibbs had sidelined her to protection detail instead.  She didn’t trust herself to not kill the quarian instead of bringing him in for questioning, and Gibbs had known not to take any chances even though she had seen a similar rage behind his steel gray eyes.  At least she wasn’t alone as Dax leaned over the back of the chair, sitting in it the wrong way as the turian sighed, his gaze also riveted to the pianist as the machines breathed for her.  The soft beep of the heart monitor was the only sound besides the soft whoosh of the ventilator forcing more air into her lungs.  “There’s a reason why they call polonium ‘the silent killer.’”

“Because by the time it’s detected, it’s usually too late.”  Ziva replied softly, both because she didn’t want to disturb Wendy’s fitful sleep, but also because she couldn’t get her voice to go any higher without fear of it cracking.  While she got the feeling Dax wouldn’t judge her for being so emotionally torn up, Ziva was stubbornly proud and wouldn’t allow herself to break into tears so easily.  “I’ve...seen what radiation can do to someone.”

“What was his name?”  Dax asked suddenly, in the hopes of provoking a response.

“What gave you the idea that it was a ‘he’?”  Ziva challenged, a ghost of a smile pulling at her lips even as she looked away from the officer’s inquisitive, quietly amused gaze.  A moment of silence passed between them before she whispered, “Lieutenant Roy Sanders...he was in the United States Navy and also an inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.  He came to the office some time ago and asked us to investigate his own murder.  I...watched him slowly wither and die right in of me in only a few days.”  She held up a hand to stop the C-Sec officer from apologizing before subtly wiping at her right eye.  “It’s okay, don’t apologize.  But he was a good man, he did not deserve what happened to him.”

Dax sighed and nodded his agreement before turning his head to look towards the unconscious girl between them.  “No one deserves this kind of death, ‘specially the good ones, Miss David.”

“Ziva.”  She gently corrected him, before asking,” so long as I can call you Dax?”

“Knock yourself out darlin’.”  Smiling a little stronger now, Ziva was about to say something, but the soft whoosh of the door opening had them turning towards Doctor Chloe Michel as she softly walked to Wendy’s side.  “What’s the prog, doc?  Our girl gonna be alright?”

Chloe didn’t immediately answer the question, much to Ziva’s silent dismay as she continued to check off various things on her omni-tool before making a minute adjustment or two.  “Luckily we were able to pump Ms. Watson’s system with enough anti-rad medication to counter the worst of the polonium 210, but since the isotope is so dangerous even in microscopic amounts, the next few hours could go either way.”

“So fifty-fifty odds?  That doesn’t sound so….”  The look Chloe threw his way was all he needed for his mandibles to visibly droop.  “Do what you can doc.”  He said instead, all trace of his earlier humor gone.

“I agree Doctor Michel.  She has too much to offer the galaxy to die now.”  Ziva gravely intoned next.  Looking up when Chloe put a hand on her shoulder, she relaxed, if only a little, from the comforting gesture before the good doctor left the room.  She and Dax sat in silence for several minutes until Ziva had to get up and leave lest the all too familiar sound of the hospital equipment drove her insane.  Flashes of Gibbs’ face after a bomb nearly killed him flashed behind Ziva’s eyes, followed by Roy as his body slowly crumbled from the radiation poisoning, courtesy of those responsible for his murder.  She had come close to losing everyone she had come to cherish and even love, provided she hadn’t already done so, and it was moments like these that she wished she had never volunteered to become a Mossad agent under her father’s tutelage.

She didn’t know how she had wound up in a shadowy corner of the hospital, away from prying eyes, only that when her back hit the metal wall behind her, she let her legs slowly give out before she sat on the floor.  With her legs pulled up to her chin, she quietly cried for the senseless violence and the impending doom that was likely to fall upon yet another innocent person.  So lost to her sorrow, Ziva didn’t fight when a strong arm fell across her shoulders and pulled her into a warm, comforting embrace.  It wasn’t until she looked up that she saw it was Dax offering his shoulder to her, his green eyes alight with empathy and compassion, understanding all too well what she was going through.

“I’ve lost a lot of decent folk ‘for the war was over.”  He whispered and sighed heavily as he produced a handkerchief for her, which she gratefully accepted from his taloned hand.  “Most of ‘em were friends, a few...were a bit more important to me.  Sad part is, things mighta turned out differently if our so called leaders had bothered ta listen to a certain Spectre’s warnings about what was comin’ for us.  Doesn’t matter now, the war’s done and I’ve done what I can to move on.  Doesn’t make it hurt any less though.  Ain’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about ‘em.”

Ziva didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to as she peered into the turian officer’s face.  They’d both lost people they loved and that was enough to take some of the sting from her emotional scars.  Silently handing back the handkerchief once she had wiped her eyes dry, Ziva stood to her feet before offering her hand to Dax.  Not that he actually needed the help, but his mandibles lifted in a close proximity of a smile as she pulled him up.  “It does not.”  She said in whisper soft agreement, but the hand she put on his arm said that she was there for him as he’d already been for her.

Walking back to Wendy’s room, Ziva nearly didn’t see the door shutting, but the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up when she realized she hadn’t  _ seen  _ anyone actually leave the woman’s room.  Her heavy pistol immediately snapped up, yanked from her holster in a single fluid motion as she shouted, “Freeze Jel’na!  NCIS!”  She knew he was there, and she was proven correct when a doctor was immediately shoved out of the invisible quarian’s path.

“I can’t get a clear shot!”  Dax said as he pulled both of his hand cannons from their respective holsters as the various doctors and orderlies scattered, allowing the two agents to chase after the cloaked assailant.  “Gorram it!  Move it people!  C-Sec comin’ through!”  Dax took off with Ziva hot on his heels, but not before she glanced through the large window that overlooked Wendy’s room.

“Do not let anyone else into Ms. Watson’s room!”  She called over her shoulder, having seen she was okay but she had also spotted something of interest hanging from the curtain rail above the window itself.  But she put it to the side of her thoughts as she did her best to keep up with Dax’s long stride, her fingers a whirl as she put in a call to Gibbs.  “Jel’na was in her room.  We’re in pursuit now.”

“Callin’ in the cavalry?”  Dax asked as Ziva deactivated her comms without ever breaking stride.

“Focus on tracking him down.”  Countered a fiercely determined Ziva as her gun snapped back up to eye level as they burst onto an emergency stairwell, the locks having been disengaged as they’d been at the theater.  “Found his point of entry.”

“Which means he probably left the same way.”  Taking the stairs three at a time, Dax started down only to jerk his head up when a door above was opened.  Ziva didn’t wait for him to catch up as she took off, with the turian letting out a stream of muttered curses in his native tongue.  “Gettin’ too old for this shit.”  He finished just as he saw Ziva shoot through the door once he reached the top of the stairs.  The sound of a shuttle going for the roof normally wouldn’t have raised alarms, but with their gunman trying to escape, he knew he needed to hurry or Ziva would be outgunned in no time if Jel’na’s friends were hostile.

It was no surprise then that he saw Ziva, once he was outside on the helipad, ducking behind a large ventilation shaft as bullets rained down around her.  He didn’t think twice about what he did next as Dax put his guns back into their respective holsters.  Running between her and the approaching shuttle, Dax blew out a breath and let a curse escape his mouth as the glow of dark energy began to coalesce around him.  “Stay close Ziva!”

Ziva didn’t question the order as a bubble of energy appeared around them just as the shuttle’s occupants brought a rocket launcher to bear on their position.  They felt nothing of the fire and shrapnel though thanks to Dax’s Barrier, his arms outstretched as he channeled his energy out in every direction.  “You’re a biotic?”  She asked, more amazed than anything as Jel’na, no longer cloaked, jumped aboard the shuttle before it took off as quickly as they came to get him.

Dax sighed but nodded his head as he let the Barrier drop once he was sure they were out of danger.  “Cabal, specialist rank in the Hierarchy.  Now you know why I told McGee why I’ve been called far worse things in my time.”  Putting a hand up to his forehead, Dax tried to get a bead on the escaping shuttle, but the artificial ‘sun’ made it difficult to see anything.  “Looks like they’re smart enough to fly right for the big ol lamp in the sky.  We ain’t gonna see a thing from here.”

Getting the hint she wouldn’t be able to ask more about Dax’s past, Ziva let it drop since they had other things to worry about.  Mainly, what Gibbs was going to say once he learned that Jel’na had gotten away.  But putting it off wasn’t going to make it any better, so it was her turn to sigh as Ziva called Gibbs once more as she led the way back down to Wendy’s room.  “He got away.  We’re fine Gibbs, but he has help.  I didn’t get a good look though, it happened too fast.  I’m securing Wendy’s room now.  He left something, I’m not sure what but it looked like a sash.  I’ll get back to you when I know more.”

**======================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., NCIS, the Morgue**

**March 3rd, 2195, 2:35 AM**

“Burning the midnight oil again Doctor Mallard?”  The drell assistant asked as he finished arranging the evidence they’d been sent just as the good doctor walked into the morgue.

“The times might be far removed from what I remember, but the work remains the same, Hamu.  Thank you for getting everything put together before I arrived.”  Despite the late hour, Ducky was all smiles as he made his way to the drell’s side.  This was hardly the first time he’d been woken up to work on a case at an odd hour of the night, and it would hardly be the last.  The only part that was different was that he was working alongside an amphibious humanoid of sorts instead of his former assistant, Jimmy Palmer, who had regrettably been sick with the flu when Gibbs, the team, and himself had been pulled to this time period.  But despite missing the man, Ducky had adjusted far better than most of his still remaining friends, although he still missed those he had left behind immensely.

If Hamu noticed the wistful look on Ducky’s face, he didn’t comment on it as the sand colored drell moved aside for him to get a closer look at the various photos of Jel’na’s living quarters, his personal items that had been sent from the Citadel, and two lists of both his extranet viewing habits and any pertinent financial information that would aid in building a psychological profile of the man.  Hamu’s dark, nearly cobalt black eyes, flicked to the items arranged between them as he folded his hands behind his back.  Like any drell, he was wiry, strong, and he walked with a powerful if graceful gait, his gaze unwavering from the table even as he addressed Ducky.  “From what I’ve seen of this Jel’na, he’s a contradiction, split between desires and motivations as surely as someone who has become Lost.”

Changing into something more appropriate to the task at hand, Ducky’s voice filtered from the next room.  “Do you mean to say that he is not, to coin a phrase from your people’s culture, Whole, Hamu?”

“Indeed.”  Hamu replied as Ducky stepped back out, attired appropriately in surgical greens and a pair of gloves so as not to cross contaminate any of the physical evidence they’d been sent, not counting the pictures of Jel’na’s living quarters or the lists of course.  “From what I can tell just from his extranet viewing habits, he’s obsessed with knowing everything he can about the Reaper War and those that were the most responsible for ending it.  Thus, his research goes to the Normandy SR-2’s crew, which are as diverse a group of misfits, criminals, terrorists, mercenaries, scientists, ex military and enlisted, and more that you would ever hope to find, yet instead of going after them directly, he targets Oriana Lawson.  Confusion that is compounded further because when C-Sec raided his quarters, they found this.”  Hamu tapped a scaled finger on a picture that showed a wall covered in articles, news clippings, and pictures of the Normandy’s entire crew, with Commander Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Shepard’s photo highlighted with a giant red circle, with an X drawn right over her image.  If that didn’t scream ‘target’, both men didn’t know what did.

“The answer I believe, is not as straightforward as we’d like, which worries me if I’m correct.”  Ducky mused as he stood across from the drell, his own gaze settling upon the various items between them.  “For instance, the flowers here.  Violet Carson is a salmon pink rose cultivar, an uncommon hybrid of the red hybrid tea 'Mme Léon Cuny', and the orange floribunda 'Spartan', created by Samuel McGredy IV between 1963 and 1964 if I remember correctly.  The Violet Carson was named after the English actress Violet Carson, who played Ena Sharples in the British soap opera  _ Coronation Street _ .”  Holding up one of the violet colored flowers in question, Ducky made a thoughtful noise before pointing his forefinger towards the flower’s petals.  “ Notice, that the dense semi-double flowers reach an average diameter of eight centimetres with up to thirty-five petals, and typically appear in loose clusters of three to fifteen in flushes throughout the season. These seem to have a mild to strong, sweet musk fragrance and an elegant bloom along the outer petals that bend decoratively outwards.  Their colour seems to range from a blush to a strong pink with a cream center.  The ‘Violet Carson' is almost thornless, they tolerate the rain fairly well, and they’re even able to survive cold temperatures down to negative twenty three degrees Celsius.  A hardy flower, and one a blind woman could appreciate a great deal without fear of pricking a finger.  Yes, I do believe our young shooter has a soft spot for our ailing pianist.”

“You’re truly a font of information Doctor.”  Hamu said, thoroughly impressed by the man as Ducky set the flower down with a soft chuckle.  But his thin little smile turned into a thoughtful frown as he looked back down to the table’s contents.  “But that doesn’t answer the question as to why he shot at her.”

“I don’t believe it was intentional.  His blatantly going into Wendy’s hospital room, and that he left something behind, says to me that he is trying to make amends for her becoming ill.  If anything, I’d hazard a guess that he missed on purpose once Wendy got between him and Oriana.  His entire point of being there was to kill Ms. Lawson, not Ms. Watson, so when she bravely shielded the violinist, he simply fired to scare off everyone else rather than to harm anyone that wasn’t on his list, which explains why no one else was hurt.  Here, take a look at this.”  Ducky said as he further began to explain his reasoning as he picked up a financial statement.

Hamu glanced over the list once more, and his eyes widened as he too began to follow Ducky’s logic.  “Wait.  He made several substantial credit transfers to the Migrant Fleet?  Why?  And he made several purchases for immuno-strengthening teas and innoculati- Oh….I see your point Doctor.”

“Quite right Hamu, I’m glad to see you’ve caught on.”  Ducky leaned forward as another soft, amused chuckle escaped him from the drell’s slight embarrassment.  “Yes, I imagine, Jel’na and Wendy spent more than a little time together before he went on to target Oriana.  So much so in fact that he removed his suit’s visor for her so that she might explore the face behind it, as any blind woman would.  And from my understanding, that takes an immeasurable amount of trust to willingly expose one’s self to the open air.  He was likely sick for several days, or is even now still suffering from a cold due to the regrettably weakened immune system of any quarian in this day and age.  Centuries spent aboard the Migrant Fleet, away from the planet that they had built a symbiotic relationship with, further degraded their already weak immune system since they evolved in such a way that the few bacteria on their planet worked  _ with  _ them rather than against them, as is the case for most other species.”

“So do you think it’s possible that he is trying to help those in the Migrant Fleet despite going about it the wrong way, Doctor?”

“Yes.  Rage in times past, has often been described to be a paralytic, but love?  Love is another animal altogether, and is far more dangerous since it makes people a mite unpredictable.  But you’re not wrong about him being torn, and I dare say he’s split between these two powerful emotions.  The pieces are here, we just need more time to examine them to get a better idea as to what he’ll do next.”

**======================**

**The Citadel, Zakara Ward**

**C-Sec Office, Officer Bullpen**

**March 3rd, 2195, 9:52 AM Local Time**

"Then why did you join C-Sec?" McGee questioned the turian officer curiously once Ziva and Dax had returned to the building and given their briefing to Gibbs.  His curiosity was too strong to ignore as he openly gawked at the man that had saved his friend’s life.  "Why not stay with your unit?"

"Wish I could, but didn't get the chance to. We were deployed to Palaven... and that’s where they’ve remained.  I was the only one to be pulled out of the burning wreckage that was our shuttle, shot down by a bug with cannons on its back."  Dax told him with true sorrow, having sat down on the edge of Ziva’s temporary desk in the officer bullpen, his cybernetic leg stretched out on a chair he’d put in front of him for that very reason.  "I still dream of these metal spires.... everyday.  After the war ended, I thought perhaps they were still alive, but after three days of lookin’ for survivors once it was over and only finding corpses...."  He trailed off, unable to finish the thought, not that he needed to.

"I’m sorry."  McGee replied, feeling like a giant heel for having pried into such a dark point in Dax’s life.

But Dax waved off his apology, having heard it all before.  "Not your fault, still wish I could have gone with them that day though.  And didn’t anyone tell ya it’s rude to eavesdrop Gibbs?"  He asked, to which Gibbs replied by walking past the turian on his way to McGee’s desk, but not without giving Dax a look that spoke volumes.  Dax merely nodded in response, silently glad he hadn’t felt the need to say anything aloud.

“B-Boss.  I’ve gotten through the rest of the troupe’s comms and financial records.  Everything checks out save for Oriana, some of her calls were pinged since they were all made to her sister throughout the troupe’s stay on the Citadel.  Nothing else stands out from her, but Jel’na’s records are another story.”  A quick click of the mouse at his side, and the central monitor in the station office lit up, displaying the indicated transmissions that McGee had highlighted.  “All of them were made to an ExoGeni rep.”

“Corporate espionage, looks like Ms. Lawson’s hunch was right boss.”  Tony chimed in as he took over, yanking the mouse from McGee’s grasp before clicking open something else for the team to mull over.  “Jel’na Narra vas Scumbag was nine years old when the Reapers hit Earth, taking his parents in the first few minutes of the invasion.”  The ruined remains of the two quarians were popped up on the screen when he clicked.  “He and countless others were left to fend for themselves until Alliance soldiers picked them up, which is where he met Wendy Watson.  They were shipped off world with hundreds of other survivors that first day, but Jel’na’s life would get decidedly harder before it gets better boss.  The Fleet finally got in touch with us and sent his real name, along with the name of the ship he’d have served on, if things had turned out differently.”

McGee took Tony’s momentary distraction to yank the mouse back from his fellow officer.  “Admiral Zaal’Koris vas Qwib Qwib had expressed interest in taking Jel’na onto his former vessel, but Jel’na’s parents had wanted to see the galaxy a bit with their only child before letting Koris have him for the next several years, which was why they were on Earth before the invasion.  According to reports from the Admiralty Board, Jel’na’s parents were overjoyed that an admiral had singled out their son as he did, but during the battle to retake Rannoch, Commander Elizabeth Shepard would be forced to choose between saving Koris or his crew, but not before the Qwib-Qwib was annihilated by the geth.  Most of Jel’na’s friends and the rest of his family were already stationed either on the ship or were a part of Koris’s crew.”

“No wonder he’s gone loco for Shepard Puffs.”  Tony chimed in as he made to grab at the mouse again until Gibbs slapped the back of his head, freezing him to the spot.  “Thanks for that boss.  Jel’na’s real name is Jan'Gula vas Qwib-Qwib, or at least it would have been, before it was vas Shellen, a quarian Liveship, and he’s been a real busy beaver since signing on with ExoGeni, becoming a corporate hitman at the ripe age of fifteen.  He’s been operating under them ever since, taking out the competition across several systems.  Only reason we didn’t get a red flag a lot sooner is because he’s mostly targeted other criminals, or people that had questionable ties with ExoGeni, most of whom the other agencies believed were better off in body bags with so many other criminals and gang members to worry about these days.”

“He’s done cleaning house for them.”  Gibbs muttered in that icy, cold tone of voice that did little for the team’s collective nerves.  “Now they want him to take out the only threat in their way.”

“You’re right boss, if Oriana’s able to raise the money in the Sirta Foundation’s name, the civilian contracts from the Systems Alliance for the colony rebuilding efforts will go to them instead of ExoGeni.  And with the massive debts owed by the ExoGeni group, they desperately need the contracts to pull themselves away from bankruptcy.  The irony is that Jal’Gula would have gone after Oriana Lawson on his own.”  McGee might have said more, but Ducky’s sudden arrival stopped him mid stream.

The grave set of his jaw and the sad way he looked towards the quarian’s picture when it was pulled up anew told them he wasn’t bringing them good news.  “I’m afraid that it’s worse than that Timothy.  Jan’Gula was restrained, controlled, and hesitant before now because Wendy Watson was on that stage.  Can you pull up the pictures of the original shooting please?”  McGee didn’t disappoint as he quickly pulled up the bullet riddled stage.  Ducky nodded his thanks before gesturing towards the holes in question.  “Because he couldn’t get a clear shot on Ms. Lawson, he proceeded to shoot everywhere else, except the people themselves.  He could have easily killed everyone on that stage with the heavily modified ammunition he’s been utilizing by simply shooting a few of them.  Yet no one died, and the only person that was wounded at all was Wendy, and only because she got in his way without realizing who was on that balcony.”

“He missed on purpose.”  Ziva intoned, which was both a good thing, and a bad thing.  “If he’s been operating for three years, he’s no amatuer.  You don’t last long as a galactic corporate hitman if you’re sloppy.  He’s professional yet driven by his need to kill Shepard and her people.”

“Which brings me back to why I’m here.  Jan’Gula is split in his convictions.  He believes that by making the Commander suffer the same tragic losses he has, that there will be some justice brought back to the galaxy before he finally kills her, if she doesn’t do the job herself of course.  And yet at the same time, despite everything he’s lost on Rannoch and among the Migrant Fleet, he sends almost every credit ExoGeni has paid him, back home.”

“That’s because he’s quarian.”  Every eye fell on the the purple and black suited quarian woman that had spoken, her arms crossed and her hip cocked ever so slightly to the side.  Glancing over her shoulder, Gibbs could see she carried a heavy shotgun, well worn from use, which was currently magnetized to her back.  While the power pack was removed along with the ammo block, he got the impression she didn’t need it to make his life difficult as her silvery eyes fell squarely upon his face.  “Your Director told me I’d likely find you here Special Agent Gibbs.  My name-”

“Admiral Tali’Zorah vas Rannoch, originally vas Rayya, then vas Normandy when you signed on with the Commander.  I know.  What I want to know is why you’re here?”  He had an idea or two, but he wanted to hear it from Tali herself even as Tony, McGee, and Ziva stared dumbly at the near legendary quarian that had just burst into C-Sec like a woman on a mission.

Dax however was the first to answer the question as he swung his leg off of the chair in front of him.  “She’s here to make sure we don’t kill Jan’Gula before takin’ him in for questionin’.”

“I’m here to ensure he goes home for a proper trial before the Admiralty Board, yes.”  Tali gently corrected him, but it did little to defuse the boiling anger in Gibbs’ gut.

“You’re here to cover your people’s ass, and I don’t have time for-”

“Your Director would disagree, Special Agent Gibbs.”  Tali countered, not only interrupting Gibbs, which further surprised his team since very few people had ever dared to do so, but she willingly met his steel eyed gaze, appearing the picture of calm as she opened a line to the woman in question.  “Eliza.  You were right about your agent, he wasn’t happy to see me.”

‘Eliza’, even in miniature form on Tali’s left arm, simply stared unerringly at the man as she crossed her arms across her stomach.  “Agent Gibbs, will there be a problem with the extradition of the quarian criminal, this Jan’Gula vas Shellen?”  Despite it being posed as a question, the underlying note of unwavering steel in Eliza Shepard’s voice was impossible to ignore.

Gibbs could only growl out a, “No ma’am.”

“Good.  Because if this goes poorly, Councillor David Anderson will likely ensure all of our jobs are given to someone more inclined to listen to orders.”  Before Tali could give Eliza her thanks, the Director turned her full attention on her next.  “But as I’ve already told my twin sister, the ACIS is  _ not  _ at her beck and call, and as much as I appreciate what you’ve done for us all Admiral, I really hope for your sake that this is the last time something like this comes up.  We have very strong evidence to suggest Jan’Gula is not the man you hope he is.”

“Until I see the evidence in question, I won’t believe he is the monster you claim him to be.”  Countered a slightly miffed Tali before the call was ended on the Director’s side.  With a shake of her head, Tali turned her attention back to Gibbs.  “Please understand I only wish to protect one of our people.  Too often we’ve found ourselves at the mercy of the local authorities, who are all too often ready to paint us as thieves, vagrants, and worse simply because we’re quarian.”

“McGee.”  Gibbs called out, which had the young tech expert jumping to his feet.  “Pull up the video feed of Ms. Watson’s room.”  McGee didn’t waste time asking why as Gibbs put an arm around the quarian’s shoulders before he marched her towards the central monitor.  The frail, blind pianist’s half bald head, her face contorted in pain as the breathing machine did what it could to keep her failing body going, had filled the screen by the time they were in front of it.  Tali could do nothing but look at the image as Gibbs whispered, “This is what Jan’Gula has left behind,  _ Admiral _ .  A microscopic amount of polonium 210 did this, because she got between him and his target.  She’ll likely be dead before the day’s over, so you tell me if he’s still worth protecting.”

“You….make a strong argument.”  Conceded Tali after a very uncomfortable silence fell between them, albeit it was with great reluctance on her part that she did so as she pulled free of Gibbs’ arm.  “But I have to do what I can to ensure he’s given a chance for a fair trial, therefore we have to try take him alive.  I’m not here to get in your way Agent Gibbs, and if the Admiralty Board  _ does  _ decide to exile Jan’Gula, he’ll be yours to do with what you will because he would not be considered a quarian, thus he would not be under our protection any longer.  But it’s not something we’ve had to do very often.”

“And if he  _ is  _ exiled, what normally happens?”  Asked an inquisitive Ziva as she closed the distance between a quietly fuming Gibbs and their quarian guest.

Despite the hostility she could still sense among the group, they could tell Tali was grateful for the chance to divert their attention elsewhere.  “When the flotilla was founded, it was quickly established that we couldn’t afford to house prisoners for extended periods of time.  A non-productive member of society was an unnecessary strain on our very limited resources, therefore we often left the few criminals that have cropped up over the years on any system we were passing through, provided it had a population already established.  From there, the locals would often deal with the exiled individual for us.  If they were able to reproduce however, we would allow the offender's children back onto the Fleet since the crimes of the parent do not transfer to their offspring.  We are too community driven for such extreme measures, and every life is almost sacred to us given our limited population, thus we do not execute our criminals, not if there’s a chance something good might make its way back home.”

“I’m afraid he’s too far gone at this point for it to matter, Admiral Zorah.”  Ducky chimed in as he pulled up an image on the central monitor of Jan’Gula’s sash the quarian had left in Wendy’s room, which was now being examined by Abby for anything they could find.  “He left it in Ms. Watson’s room despite their being a security detail around her.  If I were to hazard an educated guess, he’s resigned himself to his fate and knows full well that he will likely be exiled if he’s caught, despite all of the credit transfers he’s made to the Migrant Fleet to help his people survive, perhaps even thrive.  In essence, he doesn’t consider himself a quarian any longer, especially now that he’s seen the damage he’s wrought due to his blinding rage and need for vengeance against those he believes is responsible for all he’s lost.  Wendy will likely perish because of him and he knows it.  As such, I’m afraid that the next time he strikes, and I’m sure he will, it’ll likely be the last time.”  The sorrowful look he threw towards Gibbs said what he hadn’t, that either Jan’Gula or Gibbs would walk away from their next encounter.  Not because Gibbs would break protocol and simply gun him down, no matter how much he might want to, but because Jan’Gula would force their hand to that effect.

“Remember the Alamo, eh Duck?”  Tony asked, but didn’t wait for a response as he stepped forward, his arms crossed as he looked towards Tali over Gibbs’ shoulder.  “Shall we walk her through what we’ve gathered boss?”

Pushing past Tali, Gibbs didn’t look towards Tony as he all but growled out, “You do that DiNozzo, the rest of us will get this dirtbag.”  But he’d barely left the bullpen when his omni-tool flashed another message alert in his face.  Angrily jabbing a finger into the display, he calmed, if only a little, when Abby’s beaming face appeared on the screen.  “You better have something for me Abs.”

“Oh I do, or rather Athame does.”  She hurriedly replied with an energetic nod of her head.  “We know how to break through Jan’Gula’s cloak.”

=====================================

**End Notes** :  So, a couple of things.  I hated that David Anderson died from a single shot to his stomach during the final confrontation with the Illusive Man.  Oh I get the reasoning from a story standpoint, and it was a VERY beautiful scene at the end, (not counting the screw job that was the ‘Star Child’ and the three idiotic choices at the end), but from a logical standpoint it made no sense since his shields should have kicked in, the armor should have protected him, and even then a single shot to the gut wouldn’t have killed him so easily.  Sure, they were at the end of the road, they were both weakened significantly, but even then it shouldn’t have been that easy.

Lol okay, rant over, promise.  As for the Director and the Spectre being twins, well that’ll be explained in due course, but I rather like the idea of having not one, but TWO Shepards running around, doing what they do best even if they go at it two entirely different ways.  One’s used to bludgeoning her way forward, no matter what it takes.  The other is used to playing ball within the rules and protocols of the military she serves.  Can someone say family drama?  Lol jokes aside, as for the stuff with Jan’Gula vas Shellen, I’m no professional medical examiner or anything, not by a long shot, but I DO know a great deal of the stuff involving the ME universe and I’ve seen enough of NCIS to at least get a very basic idea of how all this stuff works, at least in theory.  As such, Jan’Gula has the best intentions when it comes to his people, but he’s going about things in the worst way possible due to everything he’s been through, and now he has nothing left to live for.

If you were expecting a peaceful resolution to things, you’re gonna be disappointed.  See ya soon folks, and buckle up.


	4. Blind Woman's Bluff Part 4

======================

Blind Woman’s Bluff Part 4

======================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., NCIS, Ballistics Lab**

**March 3rd, 2195, 3:33 AM**

“Spare us the technobabble, we need to nail this dirtbag.  What do you have?”  Asked an exceptionally frustrated Gibbs as his visage filled Abby’s screen as she and Athame tapped furiously away at their workstations.

Without looking up from what she was doing, Abby grinned and said, “Oh we have a lot thanks to the people on your side of the galaxy, Gibbs.  The ‘bullet’ grains we received were indeed microstamped with polonium 210, as well as charged with enough electrical energy to kill a horse.  The problem is that there’s  _ way  _ too much concentrated radioactivity for it to be your typical microstamping modification.”

Athame picked up where Abby left off as she pulled up an image of the standard block of metal that served as ‘ammunition’ for most of that day and age’s weaponry, alongside their estimates of what their sniper’s block of ammo looked like with detailed scans of the ‘bullets’ they’d been sent, further highlighting the differences between them.  “Our best guess is that, instead of allowing the gun’s internals to do what they’re supposed to do, which normally entails a sand grain sized ‘shot’ being cut from an ammo block before being stamped and charged with whatever mods you include to your weapon before the trigger’s pulled, Jan’Gula must have let his ammo block soak in a vat of polonium before he loaded it into his Viper.  It’s the only explanation for the amount of radiation we’ve detected in our tests.  Even then, we might have missed it if we hadn’t been looking since, despite allowing his block to soak, the actual energy output wouldn’t be enough to set off any radiological alarms, not that a lot of public buildings have such scanners to test for that kind of thing in the first place.”

“It’s not something you’d normally scan for, but the purpose for soaking a block in this stuff is what worries me.  He’s making sure that whoever gets tagged, even if it’s a graze, will be down for the count, or at least severely weakened so that finishing them off will be much easier later.  Either way Gibbs, you need to catch this guy.”  Abby finished, her earlier grin all but gone as a deeply worried frown formed in its place.

“I will Abs.”  Gibbs promised, both to reassure the young woman and to ensure they both understood that he wasn’t going to let this guy get away with what he’d done.  It helped that he’d already figured out a way to track their shooter before he got another chance to hurt anyone else, and it was all thanks to the two lab techs.

====================

**The Citadel, Kithio Ward**

**Enroute to a C-Sec safehouse**

**March 3rd, 2195, 11;01 AM**

Six vehicles left the C-Sec garage in a single file line, with an armored van trailing behind an unmarked black vehicle just ahead of it.  The unmarked car held Ziva, McGee, and Dax, while the van held a very irritated Gibbs, an unusually quiet Tali, and a slightly concerned Tony.  With Gibbs behind the wheel of the van, and Ziva just ahead of them in the car, he had every right to be concerned since their driving wasn’t exactly something he’d have wished on the ex girlfriend that had put his name on a herpes alert website out of sheer spite.  To make it worse, Tony and the rest of the team had had to endure Gibbs or Ziva’s idea of driving when they’d still been driving on actual roads, now that this time period’s cars could fly, he almost hoped their renegade quarian would just stay home and let them get to their destination in peace.  Otherwise, Tony wasn’t sure he and the rest of the group would survive the experience that was Gibbs and Ziva’s high speed evasion flying.

It wasn’t all bad though as he glanced towards their own quarian situated between himself and Gibbs.  While he kept one eye on the ‘sky’, a misnomer since there was no sky to speak of, and even the Presidium’s sunny, cloud covered sky was a holographic copy that hid the void of space just beyond it, Tony also kept an eye on their uninvited guest as she tried to process everything they’d dropped on her lap.  “Doin’ alright there Admiral?”  Tony asked, more in an effort to pull her back to the present since he had a feeling he knew the answer to his own question.

“Huh?  Oh, yes I’m fine.”  She replied, unconvincingly he might have added, as Tali looked up towards him with a heavy, slightly modulated sigh.  “It’s just a lot to take in.  As much as I want to point out the obvious, that you have only circumstantial evidence at best, I think in my heart I’ve already begun to accept what you’ve shown me.”

“You’d be a fool not to Admiral.”  Gibbs replied, but while he was still frustrated with her presence since she was, in his mind at least, an unnecessary complication, he wasn’t without sympathy to her situation.  “We have him on tape tampering with the theater’s security system.  McGee ran through the code and found clear signs of him hacking into the building, with similar lines of code found at the hospital when he went to Ms. Watson’s room.”

“And while there’s no DNA evidence given the fact you carry everything around in your fancy suits,” Tony chimed in as he looked towards Tali in place of the ‘sky’ above them, “the techs scanned for more polonium both at the hospital and at the theater, and guess what they found?  No way he isn’t the shooter if you ask me.”

“No one did DiNozzo.”  Countered Gibbs as he activated the vehicle’s secure comms just as Ziva and the car ahead of her own turned to the left.  Seamlessly merging into the sea of traffic heading in the same direction, Gibbs waited a few moments after glancing in the rearview mirror before he said, “McGee!  You got my video feed yet?”

“Already in the local security network.”  Timothy said, the sound of his tapping at the holographic keyboard just loud enough to filter through their shared line.  “Citadel Security allowed me access before we took off so I have eyes on every ‘road’ from here to our destination.  So far there’s no sign of Jan or his ExoGeni friends, but if they do appear, the scanners should be able to detect his polonium emissions now that they’ve been set to search for-”

“McGee!  You could have just said yes.”  Interrupted an annoyed if quietly proud Gibbs.

“R-right boss.”  McGee muttered in response before directing his next question to Tali herself.  “And I’m sorry but I have to ask Admiral, but how did you get here so fast?  We only found out about the sniper a little over a day ago now and travel times between here and Rannoch are three days flight time, easy.  Even with the relay network in place to significantly reduce the distance between two points, you shouldn’t have been able to arrive at the office until the day of Ms. Lawson’s event.”

“Assuming anyone shows up for it.”  Stated Tony as Gibbs took the next turn just a little too sharply for his liking as he was thrown towards the passenger side door.  If not for the seatbelt keeping him secure, he’d likely be kissing the reinforced glass.  “Shutting up boss.”

“To answer your question Agent McGee,” Tali began as she let go of the dashboard now that she wasn’t being tossed about, “I was already on my way to the Citadel for the concert when I got a message from my contacts within C-Sec that there was a shooting, and that it was suspected a quarian was involved.  It didn’t take long for the rest of the Admiralty Board to get back to me when I sent word back to them.  Given my accomplishments on the Normandy SR-2, it was hoped I’d be able to help apprehend Jan if necessary and have him returned to the Migrant Fleet, or get him off station if he was indeed innocent and this was all a giant witch hunt over a huge misunderstanding.”  The desperate hopeful note in her voice didn’t go unnoticed by either agent as Tony and Gibbs shot her a brief glance between them before turning their attention to the scenery that flew by on either side.

It was a plausible story, but Gibbs couldn’t help but be suspicious all the same.  “According to Ms. Lawson, you and Miranda had your differences in the past over another quarian she wanted to take in for questioning during the Collector incident.  You were there to make sure he got back to the Fleet since he was sick from a suit breach.”

“Your team at the time even went up against your former CO and her Cerberus buddies to see who’d get to your lost quarian first.”  Tony further added just as his eyes flicked to something in the rearview mirror.

Too focused on the conversation at hand, Tali didn’t notice that Tony was no longer giving her his undivided attention.  “You said it yourself though, it was in the past, and Oriana is not Miranda.  Besides, Miranda and I have had time to get over what happened when we first met all those years ago.  It helped that Shepard was there to keep the peace between us, despite the fact Cerberus attacked one of our ships not long before she came back.  My point though, is that like Oriana, I’m not about to sit idly by if there’s something I can do to help.  Besides, Oriana is a friend, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let her come to harm, even if my loyalties are to my people first.  I just hope this plan of yours works Agent Gibbs.”

“Oh I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”  Taking over the comms, Tony patched into the cavalcade’s shared line.  “We got a possible bogey, unmarked shuttle that’s been tailing us for the last two blocks.”

“I see it as well Tony.”  Ziva stated in that eerily calm tone she adopted anytime they were on a mission and she was utterly focused on the task at hand.  “Do you think it’s-”  The ring of a high powered Viper sniper rifle and the screech of metal as the driver side mirror was shot off answered her unfinished question.  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Show time folks!”  Dax’s flanged voice shouted as he nodded towards McGee who was currently huddled down behind the passenger seat of the car, just behind Ziva’s seat.  “You sure those lightning rods will work Tim?”

“If not, it’ll be a real short trip to the ground.”  Replied a focused McGee as he did a scan of the shuttle that had a single person leaning out the right side.  “Boss!  Polonium energy readings confirmed, it’s Jan!”

Another impact shook the van as the quarian in question did not hesitate to put another round into the armored chassis of the skycar.  The crackle of electricity followed, but thanks to the lightning rods that the team had had welded to the van’s sides, the energy was harmlessly diverted away from any of the vehicle’s vital functions.

“At least we’ve got more than a fare meter this time.” Tali muttered quietly to herself, eyes focused on the small screen on her omni-tool.

“You’ll have to tell me about that one later.”  Tony groaned as he leaned out his side window, heavy pistol in hand as he and the two vehicles’ occupants behind them began to unload on the shuttle.  The ping and screech of sand sized ‘bullets’ hitting the ship’s metallic hide was audible even at their high speeds, but their combined assault did little to slow their pursuer down.  “Must be armored plated.  Small arms aren’t doing jack!”

“Then we get creative!”  Tali shouted back over the roar of the wind passing by as she began to tap furiously at her omni-tool.  Leaning back into his seat just as another round whizzed dangerously close to his face, Tony was greeted with the sight of a flash forged grenade being created in the quarian’s lap before she pulled the heavy shotgun off of her back.  Loading the high explosive into the chamber, she motioned for Tony to get out of the way.  Not about to argue with the woman that had a grenade launcher attached to a shotgun, Tony unbuckled his seat and jumped in the back of the van.  Taking his vacated seat, Tali leaned out in his place.  “Keep her steady!”

“Easy for you to say!”  Gibbs countered, but did his best as Tali lined up a shot.  She fired just as the first of their escort went down, Jan having targeted the trailing C-Sec cruiser’s rear exhaust.  The grenade went over the burning wreck as it went down in a ball of fire, the projectile slamming into the shuttle’s front window.  It cracked the glass and tore off some of the armored plating protecting the vehicle, but it didn’t slow it down as the shuttle accelerated, filling the gap where their downed aircraft had once occupied.

“Their pilot’s insane!”  Gapped an astonished Tali as she prepared a second grenade.

“No worse than your old friend Joker from what I hear ma’am.”  Dax chimed in as he kicked open the right side door of Ziva’s vehicle before leaning out with his own sniper rifle.  Before he could fire however, Ziva, following the lead car’s lead, jerked to the right and down a narrow alleyway.  If not for McGee grabbing his arm, Dax would have wound up flying out the side.  As it was, he glared at the back of the woman’s head.  “Yeesh Ziva, give a guy a little warnin’ next time!”

“Don’t take it personally Dax, she tries to kill everyone equally when she’s behind the wheel.”  McGee explained.

“You want to drive?!”  Shouted an irate Ziva as she drove under a fire escape.

“Is that a rhetorica-”  McGee began but was promptly interrupted when Ziva jerked the wheel to the left just as another shot whizzed by.

“Of course it was .” The former Mossad agent bit back the dark glare that would have been directed at Dax was thankfully focused on the ‘street’ in front of her.  Her maneuvers grew more and more bold as she did her best to both dodge the incoming fire, make her behaviour unpredictable, and if possible, smear the following shuttle across the walls as the second C-Sec cruiser was summarily brought down in another withering assault from the sniper.

Unfortunately the following would be assassins did not comply with Ziva’s wishes and continued to follow them.  All the while the quarian hitman continued to fire at them with his irradiated and electrified bullets, doing far more damage to the van just behind Ziva than their own vehicle, not that they’d last long at this rate.  And then there another problem to consider, one Dax was happy to point out.  “We have to isolate these folks!  At this rate, one of his shots is gonna hit someone other than us.”  Dax said as he pulled the trigger on his rifle, putting a round just shy of the pilot’s helmeted head.  While it got the shuttlecraft to back off somewhat, it didn’t force them to break from them completely.

“He’s right boss, and if the van takes too much damage, the lightning rods will short circuit.  You’ll fall out of the sky like a brick once they’re gone.”  McGee intoned gravely, his face a very pale shade of gray as he held on as best he could while everyone around him did their best to keep themselves alive.  A quick look at Tony and Oriana through another security feed told McGee that she was looking quite green in the back of the van, huddled in the far corner so as to provide as small a target as possible.

“I’m done playing games.”  Gibbs growled as the first of their lightning rods was shot right off the side of the van.  Slamming on the ‘brakes’ without warning, Gibbs jerked the wheel up and slammed on the accelerator at the same time.  The shuttle didn’t have time to completely avoid the armored vehicle as the horrendous screech of metal on metal filled the air as the shuttle’s bottom was torn and shredded.  Fuel bled out from the ruptured tank as it soared past, with Jan barely holding onto the opened door of the shuttle as it smashed nose first into a parking garage just ahead of them.  The impact threw the quarian from the downed vehicle, but he had just enough time to fire twice more before he hit the ground hard in a tangle of limbs while the shuttle skid to a halt on the other side of the roof, smashing through the metallic railing before coming to a precarious stop just shy of going over the edge.

Ziva gave a start as she lost all control of the cruiser from the first shot that had found a new home between the headlights, into the engine manifold where the electrically charged shot did the rest.  While she didn’t see it, the second had slammed into the underside of the armored van, also rendering it immobile as it and their own vehicle came to a screeching stop on the same parking garage roof.  Dashing her head against the steering wheel, Ziva’s eyes blurred and her vision doubled as flames and smoke began to pour out of the dashboard.  “Ohhhh….”  She groaned, too disoriented to get her limbs to work despite a distant part of her brain screaming at her to move before she was burned alive, or killed by smoke inhalation.  As to the fate of the lead car, she didn’t know as a mandibled face filled her vision.

“-va!  -iva!  Ziva!”  With a shake of her head, Ziva’s vision snapped to the front, and Dax’s visage morphed from intense worry to one of relief as he pulled a knife before quickly cutting through her seatbelt.  Once she was free, she sagged into his long, strong arms as he pulled her from the vehicle.  “Welcome back Officer David.”

“Ow….thanks.  McGee?  Gibbs?  Tony?  Tali?”  She asked, her head a continous ache as pain rang like an insistent bell between her ears.

“Saw Gibbs moving behind the wheel, haven’t seen Tony but Tali was thrown from the van so I don’t know where she wound up.  I was about to get McGee.  Can you walk?”

“Yes.”  She replied before even she was sure if she could, but despite feeling like her legs were made of rubber, Ziva was able to put some distance between herself and the burning vehicle while Dax helped a limping, but still standing, McGee.  That was at least one weight from her mind as she turned towards the van just as the door was kicked open.  Gibbs’ head of silver gray hair as he stumbled out of the wreckage, followed by a disoriented Tony as he exited the back of the van with Oriana in tow, confirmed their well being at least.

“Looks like the gang’s all here at least.  What about our friends down the way?”  Dax asked as he plopped McGee down next to Ziva.

“I’m more worried about the lead car.”  Groaned McGee as he clutched at his right side, his ribs bruised while his left leg was broken.  “If Jan’s still alive, he could still shoot them out of the sky out of spite.”

“I’m surprised  _ we’re  _ alive.”  Grumbled Tony as he gestured to the wrecks on either side with his free hand.

“Well, I’m glad that we’re alive.” Dax said with a shrug and winced as the movement caused some pain to shoot through his body. “Not quite in one piece, but at least not in pieces.”

“DiNozzo, Dax, on me!  McGee, stay here with Ziva and Ms. Lawson, and get to cover.”  Despite having just survived a mid air collision and a crash on top of it, Gibbs led the way towards the shuttle, both to search for any survivors from the crash, and to look for their missing Admiral.  Gibbs led the way, heavy pistol in hand, his gray eyes roving every possible hiding spot between the various cars and behind any of the metallic railings that partitioned parts of the garage’s roof.

“Got some movement up ahead!”  Dax called out once he had perched himself on a nearby semi trailer’s roof before kneeling down with his rifle.  Adjusting his scope, the turian muttered a curse with a shake of his head.  “Too much crap between me and the shuttle to get a clear look Gibbs.”

A feral scream cut off the ACIS agent before he could respond, and Gibbs threw caution to the wind as Tali and Jan tumbled out from behind the shuttle, the latter attempting to wrap his hands around his fellow quarian’s throat.  “You bitch!  You allowed that  _ bosh’tet _ to command the Fleet!”

“I saved us all!”  Tali roared as she shoved Jan back so that his back hit the shuttle.  “If I hadn’t helped stop the geth and our people from killing each other, we wouldn’t be having this conversation!”

“You still allowed  _ her  _ to decide the fate of the Qwib-Qwib, of my few remaining friends, my family!  I wanted to save you for much later, but I guess that plan’s changed!”  Getting a good look at his face, Tali could scarcely believe the pure rage behind Jan’s shattered visor.  Even when he pulled a knife from a sheath at his waist, she couldn’t force herself to move.

Gibbs wasn’t so paralyzed as he fired three times, three tapping Jan’Gula nar Shellen in the chest.  The first took out the last of his suit’s shield energy.  The next two tore through the quarian’s suit itself.  Jan gasped as he staggered to a stop, looked down as he hit his knees, and dropped the knife as he fell into Tali who only just managed to get her arms around him out of pure instinct than any conscious desire on her part.  Gibbs watched as Tali lowered him the rest of the way to the ground, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth that was visible thanks to his half broken visor.

“Traitor….”  Jan cursed her with his last breath before he twitched and breathed no more, his eyes unseeing as they peered into the void far above.

Gibbs slowly lowered his gun before kneeling down next to Tali as she ran her three fingered hand over the half of Jan’s face that was exposed to the air.  “May you be as free as the dust in the solar wind, Jan’Gula nar Shellen.  Keelah se’lai.”

She didn’t look up when Gibbs put a hand on her shoulder, he didn’t need her to look up.  He simply stood by her side as he gently squeezed her shoulder, conveying more with the action than he could have done with words alone.  Without looking behind him, he addressed the rest of his team as Ziva, Dax, and Tony approached and stopped a short distance away.  “Backup on the way?”

“Yeah boss.  Lead car’s coming back around.  Looks like the area’s secure.”  The sound of a bullet slamming into the deck by DiNozzo’s feet right behind the roar of another shuttle engine had him and the rest of the team ducking behind the nearest available cover.

“No I don’t think so!”  Gibbs yelled back as he and Tali met the other’s gaze, having ducked behind the same car.  Without a word needing to be shared, they popped up on the side of the vehicle, his heavy pistol and her shotgun roaring in thunderous unison despite the fact they soon found that the new ExoGeni shuttle was just as armored as the last.  Glancing to the far side of the garage rooftop, Gibbs saw McGee and Oriana ducking behind what was left of the armored van just as the shuttle doors opened.  Four men in heavy armor, wielding an assortment of heavy weaponry, rappelled down in rapid order while the shuttle hovered in the air, providing an enormous tactical advantage as two forward facing chain guns began to warm up.

“Focus fire on the shuttle!”  Ziva shouted to Dax who had already taken aim at the vehicle with his rifle.

“Way ahead of ya darlin’!”  Dax emphasized the point as he fired round after round into the front of the shuttle, taking out the man behind the gun controls with the first two while shattering the glass with the next two.  If not for a timely jerk from the pilot, the turian would have vented the man’s skull instead of merely hitting his headrest.

Keeping the four man kill squad pinned down, Gibbs and Tali did what they could to slow them down.  “Go for the eyes, Chatika!”  Before the former marine could ask what she was doing, Tali flash forged her combat drone, a purple sphere of hard light, that immediately took off, sparking with bolts of pale orange lightning.  The first man that got too close was given a nasty surprise as hundreds of volts of electricity surged through his body before jumping to the next man in line.  The damage was somewhat reduced, but his shields and his physical well being was still damaged significantly while the first assassin was simply dropped on the spot, convulsing like a fish out of water.

The roar of a shotgun across the way shattered Tali’s drone before it could deliver another powerful jolt.  “So much for that plan!”  Tony shouted as he ducked beside her and Gibbs.  “Got any other tricks, Admiral?!”

“Fresh out!  It’s your turn!”  Tali retorted as she jerked her head towards the sound of another approaching vehicle.  “Keelah.”  Despair filled her voice as the door of the new vehicle opened, and another set of guns was leveled on the rooftop.

The expected barrage never came.  Instead, a ball of biotic energy slammed into the open shuttle, finding the pilot behind the controls.  He was hit with such force that his seat harness, and the pilot, were flung out the passenger side door.  What was left of his upper half, which was smeared across the door that’d been blasted off its track, fell to the roof right beside one of his allies who jerked his head up just in time to receive a storm of bullets from the biotic’s gunhand.

Jumping from the car, Miranda Lawson landed in a crouch, her eyes ablaze with righteous fury as she stalked towards the closest of the ExoGeni squad.  Oriana, seeing her sister, gave a cheer as the accompanying C-Sec officers landed the car in front of Gibbs and his team, providing them with cover as Miranda went to town on the survivors.

"Shouldn't we help her?" Ziva asked as she watched Miranda advance on the ExoGeni kill team. Dax followed her line of sight in time to see the ex-Cerberus officer dismantle the remaining two highly trained opponents with her biotics alone, a truly terrifying expression etched on her face the entire time.

Dax took one look at the grisly scene that quickly unfolded, looked at Miranda as she glowed dark blue from head to toe in a truly riveting, terrifying display of biotic potential, and promptly said, "Naaahhhh, she’s got this."

Once it was over and they were able to slump into the nearest hard surface that would support them. Tali took one look at Miranda as she ran to Oriana’s side and said, “It’s about time you got here Miri.”

“Sorry, we got held up in traffic.”  Miranda called out over her sister’s shoulder.  She was left puzzled when Ziva burst into tired, relieved laughter.

=======================

**The Citadel, Zakara Ward**

**C-Sec Office, Officer Bullpen**

**March 3rd, 2195, 11:52 AM Local Time**

Having all but collapsed into their borrowed desks, McGee, Ziva, and Tony breathed a collective sigh of relief as Gibbs finished the day’s paperwork in silence.  Glancing towards Tali, Oriana, and Miranda, Ziva couldn’t help but smile at the happy reunion.  “It makes you feel warm inside.”

“What does?”  Asked an exhausted Tony as he yawned into his left fist before wincing in pain, one hand going to his bruised side.  “Yeah...gonna be feeling that in the morning.”

Ignoring her partner’s complaint, an ice pack pressed against her temple, Ziva nodded towards the threesome a short stone’s throw away.  “Seeing families reunited, even if they are not of the same blood, or even the same species.  A sentence I never thought I’d say out loud before our little time jump.”

“That a fact Officer David?”  Gibbs asked without looking up from his desk.

“It is.”  Ziva softly replied as she looked towards Dax.  “What will you do now?”

“Me?  You mean now that my secret’s out or now that this mess is over with?”

“A bit of both.”  McGee chimed in, just as curious to hear what the turian had to say as Ziva was as he gingerly stretched out his injured leg.

Dax shrugged and folded his taloned fingers behind his head, his mandibled face uplifted in a small little smile.  “Honestly, I’m half tempted to go back to Washington with you folks, provided you’ll have me along for the ride, Agent Gibbs.”

Gibbs, once he looked up from his computer terminal, chuckled warmly at the proposal before giving Dax an approving smile.  “You sure you can handle taking orders from me, Agent Dax?”

Hearing the rank dropped in front of his name, Dax could only just contain his joy as he replied, “Meh I’ll get used to it.  You can’t be worse than my old SO.  Good guy, real hardass though.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Garrus you said that, Dax.”  Straightening in his seat, Dax chuckled sheepishly as Tali walked past with a soft chuckle escaping her suit’s speakers before she stopped in front of Gibbs’ desk, spreading her hands on its surface.  For a moment, neither said anything as they stared into the other’s eyes before Tali broke the silence between them.  “And thank you, Agent Gibbs, for all that you’ve done, saving my life included when you didn’t have to.  Few people would have done so, not for a quarian at least.  Never in a million years would I have believed one of my own could do what Jan’Gula nar Shellen did.”

“You’ve had criminals before yet you-”  A sharp glare from Gibbs shut Tony up on the spot, his teeth clicking together audibly from how fast he closed his mouth.

Standing to his feet, Gibbs held out his hand to the quarian, a look of understanding and respect etched onto his face.  “Keelah se’lai, Tali.”

“As Commander Shepard would say to a fellow marine, semper fidelis, Leroy.”  Tali replied with a grave, but grateful nod of her head before she grasped the offered limb.  Little else needed to be said between them as they parted in mutual respect of the other.  Gibbs and his team watched her, Miranda, who paused long enough to nod her thanks to them as well, and Oriana, walk out of the office, side by side, as different as they came, yet equals in the other’s eyes.

Only after they’d left did McGee ask, “So, are we going to the show tomorrow night?”

“Oriana was kind enough to provide us with tickets.  I plan on going.”  Declared Ziva as she set her icepack aside, turning her eyes to Dax.  “And yourself, Agent Dax?”

“Yeah sure, I got nothin’ else goin’ for me right now Officer David.”  Crossing his arms over his chest, Dax leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh.  “Ah….could go for a couple of cold, dextro friendly beers after a job well done though.”

“Agent Gibbs?”  All of them glanced towards the C-Sec officer who stood over a second floor railing.  “Director Shepard is waiting.”

Getting up from his desk, Gibbs took the stairs to the upper floor two at a time, but not before calling down to the turian specialist, “Pull any of that cowboy crap again like you did today Dax, I’ll shoot you myself.”

McGee waited just long enough for Gibbs to disappear into the office above them before saying, “That’s just his way of saying he cares.”

Dax simply shrugged, his grin unwavering.  “I figured as much.”

Gibbs meanwhile entered a darkened comms room that had several technicians working away at the various stations situated against every wall.  One took one look at him, nodded his head, and tapped in a series of commands into the terminal in front of him before the central monitor showed two near identical faces on either side.  Director Eliza Shepard he recognized immediately, but the much more powerfully built woman on the right he’d never seen in person before, but he knew who she was regardless.  “Agent Gibbs, I’d like to introduce my sister, ‘Commander’ Elizabeth Shepard, three times savior of our galaxy, and a retired Council Spectre.”

“I take it you’re the one that called in a favor to your former SO.”  Gibbs stated, silently impressed by the ranks and accolades he knew was attached to her name, even as he already figured as much as he crossed his arms across his chest as he positioned himself in front of the large, floor to ceiling monitor.

“Which inevitably filtered down to Tali who of course talked to the Fleet stationed above their homeworld.  Yeah, I’m the reason why you likely had a headache in the first place, Agent Gibbs.”  Elizabeth admitted with an unapologetic shrug of her shoulders.  “I do appreciate you looking out for her though.  When my own contacts told me a former….acquaintance of mine from ExoGeni was assassinated a month ago, a representative scumbag by the name of Ethan Jeong, I started my own distant investigation and found Jan’Gula nar Shellen working for them.  I sent what I’d found to Anderson not days before Jan made his move on Oriana, so the order would have likely come regardless for ACIS to handle this one.  I gotta say though Agent Gibbs, I’ve hunted down rogue Spectres, twice, fought mercenary groups across the racial spectrum, and had a hand in stopping the Reapers as you well know, but not once did I have to fight a quarian.  I was utterly surprised by the realization one could fall as far as he did, but knowing Tali as well as I do, I knew she’d never believe it either until she saw for herself what you ended up uncovering.”

“You could have just asked us Commander instead of going to your old SO.”  Gibbs countered even as he agreed with her reasoning.

“I’m also surprised Liz, you’re normally so straightforward.”  The Director sarcastically stated as she leaned forward.

Gray eyes met emerald as the retired Council Spectre responded, staring unerringly into her sister’s face, “Politics were always more your speed Lizzie, not mine.”

“Oh I’m aware, trust me.  You normally just bludgeon your way through everything.”

“I’m a marine, retired, officially at least, but some habits die hard.”

“Like not talking to mom?”  Gibbs mentally sighed and was about to break up the brewing argument between the two, but Eliza lowered her head about the same time Elizabeth looked away from her side of the screen.  “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.  But Liz, despite your well meaning if heavy handed interference, I’m just glad we were able to put this to bed before anyone else was lost.”  What she left unsaid yet was heard by both the Commander and Gibbs was that Eliza was glad they’d caught the hitman before he could truly hurt her, let alone kill anyone else.  “Besides,” Eliza began as she crossed her arms across her stomach, “the only people that get to make your life Hell is mom, my nieces, your bondmate, and me.”

What shame and guilt that had begun to fill Elizabeth’s green eyes faded away just as quickly.  “Good to know you have your priorities right at least ‘little’ sis.”

“By two minutes.”  Grumbled an annoyed Director.

“Still counts.”  The ‘elder’ Shepard countered, a hint of amusement filtering into her voice.  “I should go.”  With one last nod towards Gibbs, Elizabeth’s side of the screen went blank.

“I hate it when she does that.”  With a shake of her head, the Director turned her full attention to Gibbs.  “Be glad you were an only child.”

“I had three ex wives, I can relate Director.”

“I bet.  But let me repeat what Liz has already stated.  Thank you, Jethro.”  With a nod of his head, Gibbs walked out of the comms room just as the Director’s side of the screen went blank.

===================

**The Citadel, the Kithoi Ward**

**The Taralos Amphitheater**

**March 4th, 2195, 6;59 PM local time**

ExoGeni was finished, their corporation had breathed its last after the failed, and very public, assassination attempt on Oriana Lawson.  The Sirta Foundation had gained the exclusive rights to rebuild every colony from Earth to the Verge, and they’d do a far better job of things than their former competitor, but that was a distant concern for the full house that had arrived to support their fellow sapient beings in their time of need.  It was definitely a distant concern to one Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs and his team, which now included Cabal biotic, Daxio Maximus of the Turian Hierarchy as they sat in the front row of the giant amphitheater.  Apparently having friends in this day and age paid off.

Gibbs though couldn’t help but notice that Wendy’s grand piano, which was situated at the left end of the stage, was empty.  It was no surprise, but he was curious to know why Oriana had decided to leave it there.  Before he could ponder it further, the dark haired woman took the stage alongside the troupe’s lead singer.  A nod passed between them before Oriana tapped at the mic before her, and upon some unspoken signal, was illuminated by an overhead stage light just as the rest of the theater went dark.  The hush that fell over the crowd was palpable, but after surviving nearly being killed on multiple occasions in a single week, Oriana appeared the picture of calm before the storm.

“I had a speech all planned out that would have focused on why were were here, raising money for the Sirta Foundation who’d help rebuild a few colonies, but the last few days have reminded me of something that I had nearly forgotten.”  Oriana folded her hands above her stomach as she leaned forward ever so slightly, and while it was brief, Gibbs locked eyes with the violinist before her gaze moved elsewhere, stopping when she saw her sister and Tali sitting not so far from him and the team.  “Nine years ago, we all had our lives turned upside down in a single, tragic moment.  None of us knew what the future held any longer as the galaxy burned around us.  Yet when things were at their worst, when that terrible darkness threatened to consume everything in its path, a light appeared on the horizon.  A clear dawn broke from behind that dark veil, and we rallied behind that light when before we had been divided by petty, insignificant differences and age old grudges that should have been let go, long ago.  These last few harrowing days have reminded me that we must still strive for that same unity we shared as we press ever onward into a much brighter future.”

Looking towards Wendy’s conspicuously vacant spot behind the grand piano, Oriana sighed but despite the moisture that gathered in her eyes, she pressed forward.  “Wendy Watson’s piano will remain empty for this evening’s show while she recovers at Huerta Memorial.  It’s...also a reminder of those that cannot be here with us now, that gave everything they had so that we might live on.  We’ve all lost someone near and dear to us, we all have our scars, but as I look upon you all, I see that their sacrifices were not in vain.  We stood united against the single greatest threat our galaxy has ever faced, and we did not break.  While we can name those largely responsible for our still being here, we still did our part, no matter how small our role might have been.  Now I ask that we keep going forward as we reach  **The End of An Era** , and step into a new one, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, together.”

It was some time, and a round of deafening, thunderous applause later, that Gibbs met Oriana’s eye once more before the theater began to empty out once the evening’s show was completed.  Getting up from his seat just as Tony quietly mused how Jan had gathered so much information without anyone seemingly being the wiser for it, Gibbs raised an eyebrow when he saw someone had sent him a message that hadn’t tripped the audible alarm on his omni-tool.  Opening the message, he tensed as his eyes snapped to the nearest security camera.

“What is it?”  Ziva asked, before her own gaze flicked to the message on his arm.

_ There is no shadow I can’t reach, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.  For a man out of his time, you’ve done exceedingly well in mine.  Give my thanks to Director Shepard for assigning you the case, even if the order came from a much higher authority than her own. _

_ The Shadow Broker. _

“Shadows like to talk apparently.”  Was all Gibbs would say on the matter as he closed out the article detailing an apartment fire that was being ruled as an accident, killing a single, as of yet unidentified human male.  Whoever he’d been, he wouldn’t be putting anymore innocent lives at risk, that much was clear.  It was a mystery, but one he was willing to let go.  Besides, looking up at the stage, Gibbs relaxed and started to walk up the center aisle, assured that here at least, they had come out ahead.

===================

**End Notes** :  Well that happened.  Hehe, but seriously folks, that last speech from Oriana, with that song playing in the background as the opening song of the evening, got me a little choked up.  For everyone who has played the entire Mass Effect trilogy from start to finish, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and why it did since your teammates, even the DLC ones, are not just characters in a roster.  They are people, living, breathing, people, and you cannot help but feel as if you’ve said goodbye to your loved ones as they walk off into the sunset either by their own choice, or because the war takes them from you.  Every loss is a blow to the chest, every tear shed is a cut to the heart, and every victory, no matter how small, is a triumph.  And while the ending might have fallen far short of the mark, the story leading up to that moment is what truly makes Mass Effect the single most treasured RPG shooter franchise to ever grace our lives.

That long winded rant aside lol, I recently came across a snippet of a Season 11 episode from NCIS where the woman who plays Admiral Raan from the Migrant Fleet pops up on a ship with Ziva.  I was surprised, to say the least, to hear her very familiar voice, let alone to see her face for that matter lol, but it just reinforces the idea that I’ve begun to establish for the rest of you folks.  Someone has already gotten close with their review on FF, but I’d rather no one post spoilers if you can avoid it.  At any rate, no I don’t think McGee and the Director will be in an intimate relationship, although the idea’s tempting I’ll admit.  I might change my mind on that later, we’ll see.  At any rate, see ya folks, and this is just the beginning.

Look for  **Artifice** , the next ‘case’ for this, in the near future.  See ya!


	5. Artifice Part 1

**Opening Notes:**  There may or may not be a hint for a new story popping up on Nomad-117’s profile in the near future, (on Fanfiction Net whereas it’ll likely pop up on my AO3 account since he doesn’t have one), in this chapter of ACIS.  It also may not be so subtle lol.  Jokes aside, enjoy this latest case of everyone’s dream team, plus one with my Malcolm Reynolds inspired turian Cabal by the name of Dax.  See ya!

**==================**

**Artifice Part 1**

**==================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., The Twins Jazz Club**

**March 7th, 2195, 7:00 PM**

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the grand reopening of the Twins Jazz Club.”  The announcer’s smile was infectious as the small crowd of about sixty five, which was the maximum the club could hold comfortably, cheered and applauded before falling silent.  Being one of the oldest clubs in the city, everything had been rebuilt since the war using old wood furnishings and comfortable, soft colored leather where it was appropriate.  The bar was similarly a long piece of beautifully stained oak, and the area behind it were also wooden shelves of long rows of multicolored glass.  The audience itself were dressed in fancy dresses and three piece suits and ties.  The announcer was no different, dressed in a black suit, a red tie, and suede black dance shoes as he waved a hand towards the live jazz band and said, “We got a real nice treat for you fine folks tonight.  All the way from Sirona, just within the Ursa Major cluster, ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our very own Cerulean Jazz Group!”  Stepping back to more applause, the well dressed announcer beamed at the lead singer, an asari he only knew as Adri, stepped forward.  The energetic five man saxophone introduction, preceded shortly by someone working an electric keyboard nearby, was met with a round of boisterous cheers as the beaming Adri waited for her cue to start singing.

Systems Alliance Colonel Elliot Mann sighed as he fumbled for the engagement ring in his suit’s vest pocket.  Meeting Adri’s eye from their table near the front of the stage, he smiled widely, flashing a mouthful of pearly whites as he took in the asari’s beautiful black dress that was held up by two straps that covered her blue skinned shoulders, her slender neck covered by a black, lacy ascot.  When she met his gaze, her lips pulled up into a grin for just a moment without missing a note.

“You’ll never see it coming!  You'll see that my mind is too fast for eyes You're done in.  By the time it's hit you, your last surprise.”  Adri belted out as he and the rest of the crowd drank in every word, although Elliot was more fixated on the soft sway of her hips as his hopeful fiance got into the rhythm and energy of the moment.  After her show tonight, he fully intended to pop the question, but that was for later.  Right then, he was more worried about working up the nerve to ask for her hand in the first place as he waved down a passing waitress.

“Big night tonight?”  She asked, another asari that was even prettier than Adri, but Elliot wasn’t interested as he smiled and nodded.

His nervousness must have been apparent, but he was glad for a chance to talk, even if it were only for a few seconds.  “Yeah, you could say that.”  He replied before putting the little red velvet box on the table just long enough for her to get the message before putting it back into his suit.

“Who’s the lucky lady?”  The asari asked, keenly interested once she put two and two together.

“She’s on stage right now.”  Elliot replied and nodded towards Adri, his smile widening a little at having a reason to brag good naturedly.

“Lucky bastard.  Wish I had a guy like you in my life.”  Elliot just chuckled, grinned, and ordered a Serrice Ice Brandy to commemorate the occasion.  “Good choice and good luck.”

“Goddess willing I won’t need it.”  The waitress was surprised a human would invoke the goddess’s name, but Elliot merely smiled a little wider and shrugged before she left to get his order.

No sooner than she left that the window that was just behind Elliot’s seat shattered in an explosive shower of razor sharp shrapnel into the club.  He was just able to duck and avoid the worst of it.  Looking up as the crowd gasped and shouted in alarm, Elliot recoiled with a cry about the same time the live band came to a screeching halt.  Staring back at him, unblinkingly, was the body of a salarian, her head hanging off the edge of the table.  Clutched in her hand were a pair of dog tags, Alliance issue or he was still a greenhorn.

Judging by the look of surprise on her frog like face, her big green eyes opened wide in shock, she’d never seen it coming….

==============================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., The Twins Jazz Club**

**March 7th, 2195, 7:21 PM**

“I’m surprised this place is still standing.”  Tony mused as he took in the jazz club’s facade as he followed Ziva, McGee, and Gibbs through the front doors.  “Last time I came out this way was when I was still undercover for _our_ Director Shepard.”

“This was supposed to be the Twins’ grand reopening, it was a packed house according to witnesses.”  McGee replied as he and Tony were soon standing around the dead salarian.  A quick glance at the woman revealed a great deal to the probie.  “No sign of struggle from what I can see, she was taken by surprise.  Any idea how she came to be thrown through a plate glass window?”

“That’s what we’re here to figure out McGee.”  Ziva intoned as she and McGee took pictures while Tony sketched out the scene of the crime.  Dax meanwhile had the unenviable job of carrying the crew’s equipment to the scene.  “Need a hand?”  Ziva asked, more to playfully poke at him than anything.

The turian chuckled dryly, knowing he was being ‘hazed’, to coin a human phrase as he dropped their assorted luggage onto a nearby table a short distance away from the crime scene itself.  “Nah I got it, thanks.  Not the first time I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel like this, just keep in mind I ain’t gonna be doin’ this forever.”

“And what’s that?”  Ziva asked despite knowing exactly what Dax was going to say.

“Being your folks’ pack mule.  I might be big and burly David, but I’m a big ol’ softie underneath this ruggedly handsome face.”  Dax waved his finger around the edge of his face for emphasis before Gibbs shoved a pair of synth gloves into his lightly armored chest.  “Not my first rodeo ya know, but at least you got my size right.”

“You’re certainly more manly than our McProbie here Dax.”  Tony chimed in while shooting a slightly annoyed McGee a winning grin over his sketchpad.

“How come you aren’t treating Dax the same way you treated me when I was the new guy?”  McGee grumbled with a roll of his eyes as he stepped aside for Gibbs to get a closer look at their victim.

“Because he can kill me with his brain, whereas you regularly kill me with your geekdom, Elf Lord.”  Tony replied without a second thought, flashing Dax a toothy smirk that had the turian chuckling while McGee was left to grumble under his breath.  Using the pen in his hand to gingerly lift the dog tags so he could attempt to read what was written on their surface, Tony raised an eyebrow when all he saw was a blackened, heavily scarred surface.  “No name, only a partial number, looks like they’ve seen a lot of action.  I doubt they’re hers though boss.”  He dropped them in a hurry when the tags shot out a small spark in his face and he very nearly fell back into the table behind him.  “Yeesh!  Things are still live.  Must be one of those you can stick into a computer to get the info off of to help in identification.  Never seen a pair up close, but still a useful trick when it works.  Some of the damage might be fresh, but I still think they don’t belong to our froggie friend here.”

“What makes you say that DiNozzo?”  Gibbs asked, despite having already figured out the same thing.

“Well for one, I’d say they’re Alliance issue.  And no offense to our dead friend here, but she looks a bit too frail and lean to be the soldier type.”  A short snort from Ziva had Tony wondering if he should have kept his mouth shut.  “That wasn’t a crack about women serving in the armed forces or anything Ziva.  ‘Sides, you’re pretty lean but we all know you’re a-”

“Got something.”  McGee’s interruption was well received by the floundering DiNozzo as their tech expert pulled what looked like a small metallic insignia attached to a piece of black leather from the salarian’s pants pocket.  “Looks like a security badge, possibly belongs to wherever she worked at.”

“Tag and bag McGee.  ID?”  Gibbs asked without looking away from the salarian’s face.

“None that I could find.  Her omni-tool’s missing too which means I can’t gain access to any of her information from here.”

“You assume that she had one.”  Tony muttered as he glanced towards the asari in a black dress as she clung to a nearby human’s arm while another officer asked them questions.

“Everyone has one DiNozzo.”  Dax replied, pulling the man back to the dead salarian between them while McGee went to secure the security footage from the club.  “Hell, even Gibbs has one and I’ve heard him and tech have a hate/hate relationship.”

“Don’t have an idiot box in my basement anymore at least.”  Walking past Tony just as the officer left the pair near the stage, Gibbs, without looking at those gathered around the salarian, said, “Just make sure Ducky gets the body before the local LEOs do, or you’ll be walking home.”  Leaving them to secure and bag any more evidence they could get their hands on, Gibbs walked up to the mismatched pair on the stage with the full intent of talking to them himself.

Approaching the young, blonde man at her side, Gibbs couldn’t help but notice something strange pass through the asari’s gaze as she grabbed his arm just a little tighter while ever so slightly putting herself between them.  It wasn’t unusual, given the fact he was a naval cop, few people that knew them liked having ACIS around since they were essentially the Internal Affairs of the navy, but he couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to it than that.  “ACIS, Special Agent Gibbs.  I hear you had quite an eventful night.”  He stated neutrally, while pulling up the notation program on his omni-tool.

“If you’re talking about the dead salarian over there that decided to take a header through the side window, then yeah, I’d say we’re having an eventful night.”  The asari spoke up first, but she had begun to relax at least as Elliot got his arm free, reached around, and put a hand on the small of her back.

A silent, if gentle, chastising look from Elliot to the woman on his arm had Adri blushing as she muttered an apology.  Gibbs didn’t comment on it since he understood how upsetting something like this could be even as Elliot said, “You’ll have to forgive Adri.  The last time we had trouble like this was-”

“Nine years ago.  Yeah, I’ve heard that a lot.”  Gibbs finished for him as a light, wry laugh escaped him.  “Still gonna need to ask you a few questions.”

“We’ll cooperate, Agent Gibbs, just don’t expect me to like it.”  Adri muttered but sighed as she let go of Elliot’s arm before putting a hand up to her temples.  “Tonight was going so well too.  I’m sorry she died, I really am, but this will likely throw my entire tour into disarray once word gets back to the group’s manager.  The asshole wouldn’t know decency if it came up and kicked him in the ass.”

“Not important right now hun.”  Elliot said from the corner of his mouth before nodding his head towards Gibbs.  “What do you need Agent Gibbs?”

“Just to know what you were doing, if you knew the victim.  Says here you’re a Colonel.”  He said as he brought up Elliot’s personal profile.

“Retired, like many ground pounders, but yeah, I was enjoying the show that my gi- my _friend_ here was putting on.  Adri’s the lead singer for the Cerulean Jazz Group that’s been on tour for the better part of a month now.  We still have several stops between here and Rannoch before we go back home for the season.  And no Agent Gibbs, I’ve never seen that salarian before in my life.”  Elliot replied, but Gibbs had noticed the slip of the tongue.

So had Adri as her cheeks turned several shades darker but the little warm smile on her face told a story on its own.  “No need to get possessive Elliot, or to beat around the bush for that matter.  Yes we’re a couple Agent Gibbs, but last I knew, that wasn’t a crime.”

“Oh it’s not.”  Gibbs mused as he looked up much more intently towards the pair.  “But you’re gonna want to put any travel plans on hold until we get to the bottom of this.”  It wasn’t a suggestion, and Elliot was quick to give his understandably moody girlfriend a look that said to just let it go.  “Have a way I can reach you if I have anymore questions?”

“Yeah.”  Elliot replied as he transferred his contact information to Gibbs’ omni-tool.  “We’re staying at the hotel just down the road until the next show, which’ll be on the Mars colony in a few days.  I hope you’re able to get this mess sorted out before then Agent Gibbs.”

“Or you’ll likely be speaking to my lawyer.”  Adri finished with an angry huff, but Gibbs wasn’t phased by the threat as he walked away from the pair.  He’d heard far worse from far scarier people than her.

It was about that time that Ducky and Hamu arrived as Tony and Ziva cleared a path to the table for the two MEs to get a look at the woman.  “Ah here we are.  And what a sight we have today.  She looks to be in the late stages of her people’s lifespan, which would put her at about forty-five, fifty at the most.  It’s quite fascinating actually, to meet such a short lived species as the salarians, and yet despite that, they’ve achieved so much given their unusually high intellects and the drive to match.”  With a groan, Ducky leaned over as Hamu handed over the liver probe.

“You still use that old thing doc?”  Dax asked, intensely curious as he leaned forward to see what Ducky was doing.

“I prefer the old, tried and true methods when doing my preliminary examinations, Daxio.”  Ducky replied as his lips pulled up into a happy little grin at having someone to talk to that seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say.  “Ah, seems to me like our friend here hasn’t been dead long.  About three, four hours tops.”  He mused as he extracted the long, sharp ended implement once it had given him a temperature.  “Let’s get her turned over shall we?”

With Hamu’s assistance, they gingerly rolled the salarian onto her side, where they saw the back of her head had been caved in, leaving the back of her head a bloody, pulpy mess.  “Cause of death Duck?”  Gibbs asked, much to Ducky’s slight annoyance.

“Hmph.  I only just got here Jethro, I’m good but I’m not that good.  But at a glance, yes, I’d say this single, powerful blow to the back of the head was what did it, but I’d have to get her back home to be sure.  Look here.”  Gibbs leaned in close as Ducky pointed to the two large, if short, horns on the top of the salarian’s head.  The slight discoloration at the base of one, told Ducky more of how she’d perished.  “If I were to make an educated guess, I’d wager someone grabbed her from behind before delivering the fatal blow.  It’s not so dissimilar to how someone would take out an enemy sentry, except in this case, I believe our killer might be a biotic.”

“That rules out three fourths of the galaxy Duck.”  Tony chimed in as he glanced up from his notepad.  “Not counting the asari who are all naturally gifted with the skill to crush people with their pinkies.”

“You’re forgettin’ yours truly, DiNozzo.”  Dax said as he pointed to himself with one long, taloned finger.  “True, most turians don’t have biotics, but there’s still more of us out there than people realize, wanderin’ around, tryin’ to find a place to call theirs.  There was this one gal on Omega that used to work for Aria T’Loak back in the day and sh-”

“What makes you say that Ducky?”  Gibbs asked, both to get the team back to the task at hand but also to find out what it was that had led Ducky to his conclusion.

Glad for the slight interruption, Ducky happily picked up where he’d left off.  “Yes, as I was saying, the hole isn’t big enough for your typical baseball bat or any other blunt object that I could think of, and from what I can see, beyond the postmortem cuts from her fall through the window, there is no visible evidence or signs of the typical injuries one would expect from being hit with a blunt object.”

“You’re right Doctor Mallard.”  Hamu said softly as he gestured to the grisly sight in front of them.  A closer look to what passed for the salarian’s ears showed that there was more than a little blood oozing out of both auditory analogues.  “I’ve only seen wounds like this when biotics were involved.  This one came up from behind, secured her head by the horn which would explain the bruising at the base, and then drove their fist through the back of her skull.  She’d have likely died instantly on impact since the closest approximation I can think of would be like being on the receiving end of a shotgun blast at close range, except there’s no exit wound in this case.  It’s a focused blast of a different sort, one that would be significantly dampened by the density of the skull and the gray matter itself, but not near enough to save her life as the energy dissipated outward through her ears and out her nose and eyes.  It wouldn’t surprise me if we found dried up blood in her nasal cavities as well as a liquified mess behind her large eyes.”

“Suddenly I’m very glad we have our own.”  DiNozzo said as he glanced towards Dax who chose that moment to cross his long arms and cock a hip to the side.

McGee, having gotten the information they needed, was tapping furiously at his omni-tool as he came back to their table.  “Got the security footage.  Looks like there was a near mid air collision outside when the body was thrown through the window.  I’ll need to take this back to Abby’s lab since the network’s old and outdated.  The best I have right now is a dark blue blur as it tries to maneuver away from the other vehicle coming the other way.  The body flies out the back as the vehicle in question swerves out of the way at the last possible second.”

“Probably a truck or a semi of some kind then.  Am I right?  Am I right or am I right?”  Dax asked, grinning widely as he waited for someone to confirm his guess.

Gibbs was less than impressed at his guesswork as he walked away, leaving the turian to stare at the man’s back.  “You find out for sure, then you can talk Agent Dax.”  He called back with the full intent to get himself a cup of coffee.

“Was it somethin’ I said?”  Dax asked once Gibbs was out of sight, confused as to why the former marine had walked off so suddenly.

“Ah, I wouldn’t read too much into it Daxio, but Gibbs is right about one thing.  If you’re going to work for _this_ team, you’ll want to learn to keep mere guesswork to yourself.  We deal only in facts, but you’ll learn I’m sure.  You’re a smart man, or you wouldn’t be here.”  Ducky answered as he and Hamu began to prepare their guest for transport.  Dax stood silently by as he pondered over what the man said.

=======================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS office bullpen, Ballistics Lab**

**March 7th, 2195, 9:19 PM**

“You know Abby, I can’t help but marvel at your tattoos and the dog collar around your neck.”  Athame said as she looked up from the badge they’d been given by Gibbs and the team.  The goth smirked but didn’t say anything as she took a sip from the highly caffeinated drink she had in front of her.  “You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, yet you don’t look like you belong here at all.  I look at you and all I can think about are those old vampire movies from your people’s 21st century film archives.”

“Met a lot of techs in your one hundred plus years Athame?”  Abby asked in turn, and chuckled as her partner rolled her eyes with a soft laugh.  She’d heard such comments before, but Abby wasn’t offended, and was all too happy to talk about her preferred look.  “You’re hardly the first person to say that, but it’s just what I feel comfortable in.  Besides, I’d call myself plain ol regular Abby.”

“Can’t argue with someone who feels comfortable in their own skin.”  Athame conceded with a nod of her purple, high crested head.  “I wish more people were of a similar mind, maybe we’d have less trouble to contend with on a regular basis.”

“While I agree with you Athame,” Abby began as she waved her hands about at eye level, “we’d also be out of a job if there were less need for people like us.”

“Meh, sad but true.  Guess we have to endure more trouble together then.”

“Sounds like a plan!”  Abby cheered as she raised a fist into the air, earning another, louder, laugh from the asari a stone’s throw away.  The sound of her terminal beeping drew her gaze to the monitor, and Abby began tapping furiously at the keyboard.  “Whoa.  I just got the lab results back on our victim’s blood and it says here she was drugged.  Judging by the chemical composition, I’d say it was some kind of truth serum, a pretty potent one too although considering whoever our bad guys were likely getting ready to dispose of her, that’s not surprising.”

“And why’s that?”  Gibbs asked as he seemed to appear out of thin air behind the two women.  Athame jumped as a barely controlled wave of dark energy coalesced around her, but Abby beamed as she hugged Gibbs around the waist with a cry of joy.  “Missed you too Abs.”  The former marine grunted from the strength of her enthusiastic embrace.

“Sorry.”  Abby apologized as she jumped back, content now that she’d seen for herself Gibbs was still okay after heading to a new crime scene.  “After the last time you guys left and got shot at by ExoGeni’s thugs, I worry ya know?”  Gibbs knew but didn’t say anything as he glanced towards the flashing word on Abby’s machine.  With a grin, she turned and began to tap at the keyboard again.  “‘Whaddya got Abs?’, is usually what you say at this point.”

“I was just waiting on you to get there first.”

“It helps I can read your mind.  But as I was telling Athame, it looks like our friend in Ducky’s morgue, might have been drugged with a powerful truth serum, designed to bypass a salarian’s hyperactive metabolic system.  Since they have a much higher metabolic rate than any other species on record, it makes sense someone would use a drug like this if they were after information.”

“What they were after or if they even got it is up in the air, but I’d be willing to bet they might have gotten frustrated with her resistance.”  Athame stated as she calmed and relaxed before holding up her right hand, where she summoned a ball of dark energy that swirled and danced between her upraised fingers.  “If she really _was_ killed by a biotic, then it makes sense if she fought them as best she could and they killed her out of anger because of it.  As you no doubt saw, biotic power can be activated without a conscience desire to do so if we’re startled or angered to a high enough degree.”

“Thanks.  I’ll be downstairs you find anything else.”

“Found something!”  Abby called out, grinning to herself as Gibbs turned right back around, a light chuckle escaping him as she gestured to the fingerprint scan she’d been running that had only just completed itself.  “I found a match.  Meet Hirsum Olbana.”

======================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS, Office Bullpen**

**March 7th, 2195, 9;02 PM**

“Hirsum Olbana, forty-seven years old, formerly employed by the Alliance Geological Service which would explain the security badge we found.  Her friends at the office said she hadn’t come in for work this morning and that the last few days she’d been real agitated, more so than usual at least.”  Tony stated as he clicked through the various bits of her life that he’d been able to uncover.  “From what I could find out, she also did a lot of good work in relocating refugees from the war and helping them establish new lives across the galaxy.  Another of the Sirta Foundation’s good works, these guys seem to be everywhere these days.”

“It’s no wonder because they’re a truly noble organization unlike their former business rivals, the ExoGeni corporation who would have likely cut every corner they could during the rebuilding efforts of the colonies.”  Ziva cut in as she snatched the mouse away from Tony’s grasp before clicking onto a new page, this one showing a picture of a human in an Alliance officer uniform.  “Her supervisor, a Hernandez Alleron, fifty six years old, dishonorably discharged for abandoning his post during the last stages of the Reaper War.  I got in contact with some of his men and they all said that he was an ‘armchair commander’.”

“Means he preferred to let his men do all the work while he took all the credit from a secured location, probably underground and halfway across the planet.”  Tony explained as he made to grab the mouse back, but Ziva’s well placed elbow in his still healing ribs made him groan and wince as he took a step back.

Smiling victoriously, Ziva continued with what she’d found.  “Hernandez was apparently out of the office about the same time Hirsum went missing, but like her, his coworkers suggested that he’d been out of sorts these last few days as well.  Shall I bring him in Gibbs?”

“Not just yet.”  Gibbs replied softly as he looked towards McGee’s desk only to find it was empty.  “Where’s McGee?”

“Here!”  McGee called out as he came out of the bathroom on the other end of the office before skidding to a halt in front of Gibbs’ desk.  “While I was in the head, I got a message from Abby’s lab.  We have a much better picture of the getaway video.”  A few rapid taps at the omni-tool on his arm, and McGee took over the central monitor as the image from outside the Twins Jazz club appeared.  The blue blur was an Alliance Geological Service branded vehicle that matched the symbol on Hirsum’s badge to a tee.  The back passenger side door was partially opened which allowed the body to fall out when the van narrowly avoided slamming into another vehicle going the other way.  “The timestamp matches up with what witnesses reported back at the club.  At exactly seven this evening, Hirsum came crashing through the window and the AGeS vehicle was spotted heading deeper into the city, blowing through the redlight west of the club.”

“ _Now_ can I bring him in?”  Ziva asked again now that they had more evidence to go on.

“McGee, Dax, go with her.”  Gibbs ordered at last before turning his gaze on Tony.  “You and me are going to home in the city.”  With that, Gibbs started for the door with Tony following right on his heels.

“Road trip, cool.”  Dax cheered until he saw Ziva snatch the car keys from McGee.  “Oh crap.  I immediately regret my decision.”

“What happened to you being big and manly?”  Ziva asked as her smile took on a mischievous edge.

“Little thing really, called survival instinct.”  Dax shot back without missing a beat. “Because there is driving and then there is that thing that you do.”


	6. Artifice Part 2

**===================**

**Artifice Part 2**

**===================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS, the Morgue**

**March 7th, 2195, 9:13 PM**

Having long since cracked open Hirsum’s sternum, both Ducky and Hamu were knee deep in the poor girl’s autopsy, with the senior medical examiner doing what he normally did as he looked for any clue as to how this latest victim had lived and died in an effort to further help those that were searching for her killer.  Despite the grisly sight laid out before them, Hamu seemed unperturbed by the sights and smells that greeted him as the drell offered what help he could while carrying on a pleasant, and thankfully distracting, conversation with the good doctor.  “It’s as you’ve no doubt heard by now Doctor Mallard.  All drell possess an eidetic memory.”

"Ah, the perfect ability to recall every detail of your life.  There’d been a few times I’d have welcomed that myself during my days, in medical school.”  Mused an intrigued Ducky as he gingerly removed Hirsum’s heart before setting it aside after giving it a once over.  “Just as much a curse as it is a blessing though, I suppose."  
  
Hamu nodded his head with a shrug of his shoulders.  "It certainly can be. Especially memories I have a strong emotional connection towards which’ll likely draw me in as if I were there for the first time.  They’re not all bad, but in this line of work, it’s unlikely I’ll be reminded of something cheerful."   
  
Pausing as he was about to cut away Hirsum’s digestive tract for a closer examination, Ducky looked up towards the sandy colored man before him, his head cocked to the side.  "Then why not look for another job, if you don’t mind me asking?”   
  
"It’s no trouble Ducky, but it’s something I am at peace with.”  Hamu smiled and nodded his head towards the dead salarian between them, his face locked in an all too familiar determined visage.  Ducky had seen similar looks on Gibbs’ face, so he wasn’t all that surprised to see it again now.  “These people deserve justice, and I am not going to let my sensibilities or my memories stop me from seeing it done."   
  
"That is a truly admirable mindset.  You know, you actually remind me of Gibbs in a way.”  Ducky said as he waved the scalpel in his hand in Hamu’s direction.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, doctor.”  Hamu chuckled, a warm smile gracing his amphibious face that was mirrored by Ducky’s own.  “If you’ll indulge me in kind, why did you become a medical examiner?”

“That is quite an interesting story actually!  Uh, and I do apologize my dear, I tend to get a bit long winded.”  Ducky offered to Hirsum as a humorous aside before turning his attention back to Hamu.  “But to answer your question, I graduated long ago from both Eton and Edinburg, it was very prestigious as you’d expect, and I’ve served in the British military during the Vietnam war.  In all that time and all of my travels, I’ve collected far more stories than most people have gray hairs, myself included.  Yet for all that, I once aspired for mere academia, but once I started down that path I realized how dreadfully dull such a life would have been.”  He finished with a chuckle before beginning to work once more.  “I decided then, that my considerable talents would be better served helping people, and with my extensive background in medicine, medical examination seemed like the most logical step at the time.  I apprenticed under quite the talented ME here at NCIS, when it was still called NCIS, a Doctor Walter Magnus, who taught me everything I didn’t already know.  Unfortunately, old age, as it does for us all at some point, forced him to retire some time ago, but before my eventful trip to this time and place, we had one last hurrah together.  Despite the circumstances that brought us together, it was quite good to remember happier, simpler times.”

Ducky’s smile widened when Hamu’s eyes widened somewhat as he processed it all.  To say the drell was impressed was quite obvious, but it still felt good to hear it when Hamu said,  “You’ve lived quite the long and fulfilling life from the sounds of it, Doctor.  If nothing else, I will gladly keep these memories for as long as I live.”

“And that is a sentiment I can get behind my good man, although I fear my memory won’t be quite as detailed as yours.  And hello, what have we here?”  Ducky asked as he looked over what he’d found when he glanced down at Hirsum’s right wrist.  “Now how did I miss this?  More importantly, how did you?”  He asked, glancing up towards Hamu, but he had his answer when the drell merely smiled.  “You bugger, you were waiting to see how long it’d take me to notice she has very light bruising along her wrists and I dare say, her ankles as well.  The pin prick on her upper right arm, where she’d been injected, was more noticeable than the bruises since it stands out against her pale skin tone in that particular area.”

“You said it yourself though Doctor, you’re used to working with humans, members of your own species.  And there’s one thing you never said but I believe you implied, even if you weren’t aware of it at the time.”

“You never stop learning, no matter how old you are.”  Ducky finished for him, chuckling much more heartily as he caught onto the drell’s reasoning.  Looking down to Hirsum, the good doctor could only shake his head.  “If not for the invasiveness of this examination, you’d likely be chuckling yourself my dear.  But if there was no obvious sign of struggle, then how is it you became bruised unless…..oh.  Oh my.”  Both Ducky and Hamu met the other’s gaze before looking down to Hirsum.  “It seems the idea that salarians have little desire for sex for mere pleasure might be a bit of a slight misconception.  It’s good to know that, despite your age my dear, and the fact your internal organs were beginning to fail you in rapid succession, that you at least had the opportunity for one last hurrah.  But that leaves us with a new piece of the puzzle, you must have known your killer.”

“It’s the only thing that makes the most sense.”  Hamu replied with a sage nod of his head before he began to stroke the bottom of his chin.  “But I have to ask, what kind of person sleeps with someone, interrogates them, and then kills them?”

“I believe the term you’re looking for is a black widow.”  Ducky answered in turn, a noticeable chill falling over both men at the implication.

**==========================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., Alliance Geological Service Headquarters**

**March 7th, 2195, 9:41 PM**

Despite the rough ride, Ziva set the car down without incident in front of the AGeS corporate building.  To look at Dax and McGee though as both men jumped out of the car, it’d be safe to say that they were grateful to be back on solid ground.  “Timothy?  Tell me somethin’, how are ya still alive?”  Panted an out of breath Dax, having been holding onto the back seat the seat as if his life had depended on it.  In this case, he’d been sure that it had with the way Ziva had flown the car as if she were in the Kentucky Derby 5000.

“I ask myself that every time Ziva gets behind the wheel.”  McGee replied as both he and the turian let their heads drop and their hands dangle in front of them as they came down from their shared adrenaline high.

They jerked upright when Ziva slapped the back of both of their heads before walking away with a roll of her eyes and a scoff.  “My driving is not that bad.”  She grumbled without looking at either of them as she walked towards the front door of the corporate building, her stride quick and determined more in an effort to get away from the two babies she called coworkers.

“Matter of opinion Dah-veed.”  Dax called out as he and McGee began to quickly stride to catch up with their irritated companion as the sliding doors of the office building opened upon sensing Ziva’s presence on the threshold.  “She’s going to shoot me isn’t she?”  Dax muttered out the side of his mouth towards McGee.

“I wouldn’t waste the bullets Dax.”  Ziva grumbled as they walked right past the front desk, with the former Mossad officer flashing her badge towards the security guard and the human woman that was stationed behind it.  “Now would you two stop whinging and help me locate our disgraced officer?”

“Whining.”  McGee corrected her without thinking, which he immediately regretted when Ziva stopped, spun around, and just glared balefully into his face.  “Moving on.”

“Smart boy.”  The flash of a smile didn’t relieve either man of their anxiety as they fell in behind her as she led the way deeper into the office complex, navigating their way between scientists, assistants, and their secretaries apparently with the number of women that they saw in almost every hallway.  “I thought this was a geological study building, not a fraternity?”

“Soro-....It’s a corporate office, meaning that business and science go hand in hand here.”  McGee rapidly explained when Ziva’s veneer began to visibly darken once more when she turned to glare at him.  “Business execs tend to have young, attractive women around anytime they have meetings either here or at corporate functions.”

All three turned when an aquamarine skinned asari walked up, a playful smirk on her face as she swept whiskey colored eyes over all three.  Wearing a purple and red styled asari dress, the ‘young woman’ had all three staring as she cocked a hip to the side, one delicate fingered hand falling to that same hip.  “Sometimes we even have pool parties.  Shi'shaa Makeburo, and trust me when I say, I’m not a mere assistant.  I’m one of those business executives in question with claims a distant moon.  Funny what happens when you find a rich vein of palladium on a barren rock, everyone wants to be your friend almost overnight since the ore in question is quite valuable to the right people.  Luckily for me, I have friends here that are willing to pay top dollar for what my team found.”

“Congralutations on your windfall, Ms. Makesburo.”  Both Dax and Timothy shared a look when Ziva smiled without the earlier annoyance and frustration that had been there moments ago.

“Shi’shaa, please, and you are quite beautiful Miss….?”  The asari trailed off as she held out a hand to Ziva.

“Special Agent Ziva David, and are you always so forward?”  Asked a curiously amused Ziva as Shi’shaa chuckled low in her throat as they shook the other’s hands, her brown eyes holding a hint of what she was likely thinking.

“Only when I meet a woman I wouldn’t mind getting to know Miss David, or do you prefer Ziva?”

“Okay, what the hell is goin’ on here?”  Dax asked McGee, more than a little confused by Ziva’s uncharacteristic behavior.  In the few days he’d known her, she usually wasn’t this….smitten.

“I honestly have no idea.”  McGee replied, having known Ziva a lot longer and he was a little weirded out by what they were witnessing as Shi’shaa got a laugh out of the agent slash spy slash assassin in record time.  “Excuse me uh Ziva, but can we move on with our reason for being here?”

“Huh?  Oh yes, yes of course.”  Ziva replied as she shook her head and blinked, a sheepish smile tugging at her lips as she turned back to the asari.  “I’m sorry, but I must go-”

“Don’t apologize Ziva.  Go go, but look me up when you get a chance, just don’t keep a girl waiting too long.”  The sultry wink and the throaty, borderline sensual laugh that poured out of her mouth had heat pooling in Ziva’s cheeks as the asari walked away with a noticeable spring in her step.

Ziva, once the asari was out of eyesight, looked to Dax and McGee who were giving her strange looks, could only stare back.  “What?  I do have a life outside of the office.  Is it so surprising that I’d find a successful woman attractive?”

“Do you want to answer that or should I?”  Dax asked, although he wasn’t in any hurry to stick his foot on that particular verbal landmine.

“Hey now, I’m not touching that with a ten foot pole.”  Replied an equally worried McGee.

“Babies.  I’m surrounded by grown man sized babies.”  Ziva grumbled in disbelief as they once more began to make for Hernandez's office.  “God, you two are worse than Tony.”

“No, he’d be fantasizing about you and that asari by now and making no secrets about it.  We’re just trying to process the fact you went from wanting to shoot us to salivating at the mouth in record time.”  Countered McGee as they finally found Hernandez’s office.  Seeing a shadow pass in front of the window, both men got behind Ziva as she opened the door.  “Mr. Alleron?”  McGee asked as he followed just ahead of their turian friend.

The crew cut, gray haired older man sighed as he held up a finger before saying to the comms device attached to his ear.  “And you tell them that if they don’t get back to work, I’ll fire them all for breaking with their contracts and have them sued back to the Stone Age.  Now if you’ll excuse me I have some federal jackasses to deal with.”  With an angry jab of his finger, he turned off the ear piece before tossing it aside.  “And you three are as mismatched as they come, but I’ve seen enough investigation teams since my withdrawal from the field to know what you’re here for.  You found Hirsum?”  The hopeful note in his voice didn’t go unnoticed by any of them as Ziva none too gently shut the door behind her once Dax and McGee had entered the large office.

“Yes, we did Mr. Alleron.”  McGee stated as Ziva pulled up a picture of Hirsum on Ducky’s autopsy table.

“It’d be safer to say what’s left of her.”  Ziva intoned as Hernandez’s face paled and he fell back into his seat, all of his previous anger and irritation leaving his body in a rush.

“She...she’s dead?”  He stammered, disbelieving yet slowly coming to the realization that she wasn’t merely sleeping on that cold metal slab.  Wiping a hand across his mouth, Hernandez could barely keep his voice from trembling as he said, “God I knew we should have come to the police when she found out that people were being kidnapped right out from under our noses but I had hoped….I had hoped it was merely a clerical error.”

“So how’d ya find out there was a problem?”  Dax asked as he leaned against the door to the man’s office.

“Hirsum did, but salarians are notorious for their bookkeeping, it’s why I hired her despite knowing how old she was.  That was seven years ago, not long after my court martial hearing that ruled my disappearing act reasonable grounds for a dishonorable discharge.”

“Can’t imagine why, given the fact you turned yella and ran.”  Dax stated, his dual flanged voice holding more than a hint of his anger at the man before them for leaving his men to die just to save his own skin.

“Say what you like, but you weren’t there.”  Some of his earlier anger returned as Hernandez pulled up a document on his personal terminal before flipping the display so the trio could read it.  “The output for our arrivals at their destinations was drastically lower than our input on this end, meaning that once they left Hirsum’s office, they were intercepted before they got to where they were supposed to be.”

Ziva leaned over the desk and spread her hands across the surface, her stare probing the depths of the man’s face.  “So how do you fit into this?”

“We had a deal.  Hirsum would send her refugees to planets and moons where AGeS was planning to survey.  Whatever was found as colonies and homes were established would fuel their fledgling economies, and they’d give us access to the raw ores they uncovered for a nice sum of money.  Everyone benefited.”

“More so yourselves since you probably sold the ore for a premium to the highest bidder.”  Dax retorted, unamused with the obvious greed being put on display for all to see.

“You know turian, you can shove your selfless service and sacrifice bullshit up your scaly ass.  I do what I have to do to get ahead in this galaxy, just like any sapient being with half a working brain would do in my place.  Yes, I’ve profited, as have countless other people in the Alliance and the AGeS alike, which keeps people like you and your buddies employed, but I also helped Hirsum help countless refugees left behind by the war I fled by giving them jobs, places to put up their feet, and most importantly, hope.”

“I’ll be sure to tell the families of the folks that’re missing that, provided we find them before they end up dead, or worse.”  Dax retorted as he joined Ziva in leaning his weight down on the edge of Hernandez’s desk.  “So why don’tcha tell us why one of your vans was seen flyin’ down a road in front of the Twins Jazz club just a few hours ago.”

“Vans go out all the time and I don’t keep track of their whereabouts, not with workers striking on one of Saturn’s moons, a pirate attack that left dozens of my men dead on a mineral rich asteroid in the Skyllian Verge, and-”

“Yes we get it.  You’re a busy man, but surely there’s someone that keeps a reco-”

Ziva was interrupted as Hernandez stood up abruptly, his large, beefy hands balled up into fists at his side.  “Ziva, get back.”  Dax and McGee both shouted as they drew their sidearms just as she noticed the dark energy that had begun to pour off of Hernandez’s large, muscular form.

**=========================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C. Hirusm Olbana’s apartment**

**March 7th, 2195, 9:47 PM**

Shutting his omni-tool off once Ducky had passed on what he and Hamu had discovered, Gibbs turned to see Tony trying to work a set of lockpicks into the locking mechanism on the apartment door they were in front of.  “Ducky called, said Hirsum was restrained but not for the interrogation.”

“Huh, sounds to me like she had a bit of fun before having her head popped open.”  Gibbs could only roll his eyes since Tony had picked up right on what Ducky had discovered without him having to explain it.  No surprise, considering the kind of man Tony was, but Gibbs knew he’d changed despite the immature antics he still exhibited nearly every day at the office.

That aside, he waited as Tony attempted to pick the lock on Hirsum’s door, but it seemed that it wasn’t as easy as Tony would have liked.  For one, it was an electronic lock, which made his physical lockpicks useless, and two, there were no windows in the hallway he and Gibbs were currently standing in, which meant he couldn’t simply throw a rock through one or bash his elbow into the pane.  Either way, Tony could only scratch his head as he glanced between the door and an increasingly impatient Gibbs.  “This is gonna be a problem, shoulda brought McGee with us boss.  He’d have likely pulled out a workaround by now.”  Gibbs’ answer was to pull out his sidearm and put the barrel against the electronic lock.  Tony hurriedly backed away as he pulled the trigger.  The lock, instead of simply being blown off, was shorted out as bolts of electricity arced between Gibbs’ gun and the metal wall.  When the door slid partially along its track, Tony could only make a thoughtful noise in response.  “Huh.  Our friendly Admiral show you that by chance?  Either way, I suppose that works too, but someone probably heard that.”

“Then we better get a move on.”  Gibbs said as he holstered his weapon and grabbed hold of the door.  It slid aside with only a little resistance.  “Tony!”  Gibbs called out once he was inside.

He soon realized why when he saw the mess on the other side of the door.  “Someone needs to get a maid.”  Even as the words left his mouth, Tony could see that someone had been looking for something and they hadn’t been subtle about it from the smashed and thrown items all over the apartment.  Walking properly into the apartment, Tony whistled when his eyes fell on a partially open bedroom door some distance away.  Gingerly pushing the door aside, Tony grimaced at the mess his eyes fell upon.  “Yeah, I’d say this is where Hirsum was murdered.”  The bedspread was splattered with blood and what he could only assume were the contents of the salarian’s skull.

“You think DiNozzo?”  Gibbs muttered as he knelt down, spotting something that had grabbed his attention.  The omni-cuffs that had been left behind on the bed, along with the mess on the sheets itself, made Gibbs wonder if he really wanted to know what had happened.  Knowing Abby, she’d likely make a joke of their dead salarian having a fetish or two that had clearly gone horribly wrong for her.  Directing his attention elsewhere before his mind could wander further down that particular rabbit hole, Gibbs picked up a picture frame that showed Hirsum standing among a crowd of her fellows from what he assumed was a graduating class.  Pressing one gloved finger to the surface, Gibbs raised an eyebrow when the picture changed to a new one.

“Probably has a few more stored on its internal hard drive boss.  A frame like that, you could save ten, fifteen tops depending on how big your memory reserve is.”  Tony explained as Gibbs flipped through the various pictures, and set it aside once he’d gone through all of them.  Standing to his feet, Tony shrugged when Gibbs sighed.  “Think they found what they were looking for?”

“Maybe you should look around and find out.”  Gibbs replied as he stepped out of the bedroom, but not without putting a finger to his ear.  Tony got the subtle hint as he began to noisily search about the room while Gibbs slipped behind the kitchen counter that faced towards the front door, gun drawn.  The sound of heavy black combat boots making their way into the trashed apartment soon followed, with Gibbs waiting just long enough for their unknown person to make their way into the bedroom.  He stepped out from behind the counter and leveled his gun at their nosy investigator’s back.  “Turn around, very slowly.”

“That won’t be necessary.”  The woman, he soon realized, replied as she sighed and removed the black balaclava she had pulled low over her face.  Even with the cloth mask though, both men recognized the high crest of an asari as the woman slowly turned around, hands raised.  “I guess you found out I’ve been lying.”  Adri stated as she nodded her head towards the picture frame that Gibbs had been looking at not minutes ago.  One of the pictures showed her and Hirsum standing side by side together in front of a sun covered cafe.

“Which makes me wonder, how’s a sexy jazz singer get into such a fancy get up like yours?”  Tony asked as he too kept his gun trained on the asari’s back now that she was no longer facing in his direction.  The armored, skintight leather commando outfit she wore was kind of a dead giveaway to her leanings, but when the surface of the outfit changed colors, changing to appear as if she were merely wearing an asari styled robe that revealed little of her otherwise beautiful figure, his estimates of who she was working for went up considerably as it changed back with the twitch of her fingers on her left hand.  “Neat trick.”

“Thanks, and to answer your question, it’s because my authority goes well above your entire department.”  Slowly reaching for her omni-tool, Adri tapped in a sequence before displaying a badge, one that left even Gibbs momentarily stunned.  The white wings and circle at the bottom of the badge on a dark blue background, was highlighted by the name of her rank, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and the motto, Forged in the Fires of Service and Battle.   “But unlike our former rogue agent, Saren Arterius, I’m not here to make your life difficult.”

“Or you’re here to cover up a murder, _Spectre_ Adri.”  Gibbs countered as he kept his gun trained on the woman’s face as she let her hands pull apart before putting them up at eye level on either side of her head.

“Then why would I come back to the scene of the crime?”  Adri asked, but it was far from the first time they’d heard such claims.

“Maybe you were trying to find whatever it was you killed Hirsum for?”  Tony chimed in, not buying the woman’s excuse anymore than Gibbs was.  “Gotta admit, it takes a cold kind of person to interrogate someone after you’ve had yourself a good time with them.”

“You’d be mistaken since Hirsum had a taste for human over asari.  Or calamari, if you’re feeling offensive.”  Adri chose that moment to disappear in a flash of biotic power that put her just behind Agent Gibbs with a thunderous boom when she rematerialized.  The wave of energy that hit the wall in front of her was strong enough to dent the metal, bulging it away from her point of emergence.  While both men adjusted their aim to compensate for the sudden movement, Gibbs, to Tony’s surprise, lowered his gun once the room grew still and quiet once more.  “You’re perceptive.”  Adri stated, one eye ridge upraised in pleasant surprise.

“Tony, lower your gun.  If she wanted us dead, we’d already be on the floor.”  Holstering his side arm, Gibbs walked right up to Adri’s face so they were practically nose to nose.  “So, enlighten us, what’s this all about?”

“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, and you can even put it on record if it makes you feel better.”

“That’s strange, I thought you guys were above us mere plebs.”  Tony snarked at Adri’s back.

She rolled her eyes and threw over her shoulder, “Because I don’t abuse my authority Agent DiNozzo, not like many of my colleagues would have done so by now.”

“Well you better get to talking then, or I might shoot you for contaminating a crime scene with your theatrics.”  Gibbs softly growled out, his gray steel eyes unblinking as they stared daggers into Adri’s face.

If she were bothered by the glare though, she didn’t show it as she stared unerringly back.  “Can you talk and search for an OSD drive at the same time?  I’m hoping to find out where dozens of missing refugees have gone, and Hirsum was my only remaining lead.”  The quiet guilt and shame that filled her pretty eyes was not what Gibbs had been expecting as she added, “And while I didn’t kill her, it’s my fault she got involved in this mess in the first place.  I asked her to investigate since if I had gone to her office at AGeS, it’d have raised suspicions on the spot.  I want this son of a bitch, Agent Gibbs, more than you.”

“Oh I don’t doubt it.”  Gibbs replied even as he kept one eye on Adri while looking through the apartment once more.  “So, missing refugees.”  He stated, leading the conversation back to the matter at hand while Tony went back to the bedroom to photograph and sketch everything.

Adri sighed but nodded her head as she knelt down to scan over the wreckage that had once been Hirsum’s living room.  “Hirsum came to me a few days ago, not hours after our group’s shuttle landed, and told me something was happening.  Something she knew involved the refugees she helped on the side, helping to ensure they were able to start new lives on distant systems.  What started as her simply needing a friend to talk to turned into me revealing that I was a Spectre, an intelligence agent rather than a combat oriented one like Commander Shepard, and that I was already following a similar trail of leads that just so happened to be along the route we were taking through the galaxy during our tour.”

“Your idea I imagine.”  Gibbs muttered as he gingerly moved aside a large picture frame on the wall, showing a white sandy beach with crystal blue waves crashing against the shore.

“My ‘asshole manager’ is a retired, asari huntress, a dear friend of mine, and also my former CO from when I was still a huntress myself.  Before the war, she often talked about going into the music industry, and once it was over, she wasted no time in doing so.  She helped organized our ‘tour’ so that I’d be able to investigate along the way.  She’s the one that recognized my exceptional ability during the war, and she’s the one that put my name forward for Spectre candidacy.  I was assigned to another Spectre who became my mentor six months later, and it was only a few years ago that I was given full autonomy to operate on my own terms.  As to what leads I was following, I’ve discovered what looks like a slave ring, at least on the surface.  Entire shuttles worth of people just gone, no distress calls, yet there were clear signs of struggle from what I saw in a few of them.  Only one dead merc from seven shuttles, that we know about, so whoever these guys are, they’re well organized and well trained.”

“Assuming any of that’s true, it’s more like they’re just cowards, going after soft targets.”  Tony called out from the bedroom.

“The thought had crossed my mind, and something about all this doesn’t feel like your typical slaver attacks anyway.  There’s usually a lot more damage involved, both to property and people, but these seem too clean, too methodical for your random slave ring of scumbags.  I’d almost say it looked like they were invited into the shuttles.”  Adri said as she and Gibbs began flipping the few mattresses that were left on the black leather couch.  Finding nothing, the asari turned her attention to Hirsum’s work desk while he went to look through a bookshelf that was nearby.  The fact she had actual, physical books on her shelf was an oddity given everything he’d seen of this time period’s love for all things digital.

“Inside job?”  Tony asked, the slight amazement in his voice audibly evident as he stuck his head out of the bedroom.

While Gibbs looked through her collection of reading material, Adri gave Hirsum’s personal terminal a thorough once over.  “Since every shuttle comes from the same service, I’d say you’d be right, but I haven’t been able to get a crew manifest, at least not without flaunting my rank and file, setting off solar flares wherever I go.  Not only would I likely tip the bad guys off once I flashed my badge at the shuttle service’s door, but my cover would be blown to Hell and back.”

“Which means you need us to do your dirty work.”  DiNozzo countered as he went back to sketching the room.  “Are you asking for our help?  It kinda sounds like you’re asking for our help.”

“You know I can shoot you, _and_ get away with it?”  Adri countered without looking up from the salarian’s terminal.

“You’d have to get in line.”  Gibbs chimed in next as he pulled down a heavy thesaurus, and paused when he felt something shift between the pages of the thick leather volume.  Opening it, he began flipping through when he saw a large section of pages had been cut away, a hidden data device lying within.  “Got something here.”  When he handed it over to Adri who reached out to take it, Gibbs grasped her wrist after letting the heavy book hit the floor.  “Go slow.”  It wasn’t a suggestion, and Adri only nodded her head as she plugged it into the terminal.

“I know I’m a suspect to you until proven otherwise, especially given what I am, but I really am on your side Agent Gibbs.”  Still, Adri typed with exaggerated speed for Gibbs’ benefit as she navigated her way through the new icon and the files contained within that appeared on Hirsum’s desktop.

“Funny, I seem to recall you threatening to sic your lawyer on us.”  Tony called out before he walked out of the bedroom, having finished going over everything.

“I do have a public image to maintain, but in your case I’d sue you for sexual harassment with the way you can’t stop drooling, provided I didn’t just shoot you and save myself the trouble of a drawn out trial.”  Gibbs chuckled as Adri verbally cut Tony down at the knees without ever letting her eyes waver from the screen in front of her.  She frowned though when she opened up a map program, with a single waypoint already set with exact coordinates and the shortest distance to get there.  “That’s odd.  Why does Hirsum have directions to a location in the middle of a DZ near the old nation’s capital?”

“DZ?”  Gibbs asked as he hovered over Adri’s right shoulder.

“Dead zone.  It’s….it’s where we’ve not been able to rebuild since the Reaper War.”  Adri replied as she scratched the back of her crest before shaking her head.  “This is not making any sense.  We need to get down there, assuming we can get through the roving gangs and the crazies that tend to congregate in the ruins of every city on every world.”

“I guess we better be careful then.”  Gibbs stated, making it abundantly clear to them both that he wasn’t about to be deterred from following this trail to the bitter end.

 **End Notes:**  I sincerely hope all this is connecting properly.  I had a lot more trouble with this one than I’d like to admit, I had to rewrite entire sections from the ground up, and even with this version, I’m not entirely sure I got everything the way I wanted.  Still, what I have is at least good enough for what I need, and I’m happy to put it up for you folks.  At any rate, thank you for bearing through my clumsy attempts to write a mystery crime thriller such as this.  You guys on both AO3 and Fanfiction Net are awesome.  I’m actually pleasantly surprised with how many people are reading this.


	7. Artifice Part 3

**====================**

**Artifice Part 3**

**====================**

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS, Interrogation Cell**

**March 7th, 2195, 11;13 PM**

“He came quietly.”  Ziva noted as she, McGee, and Dax looked through the two way ‘window’ towards Hernandez Alleron who was looking towards the reflective surface with impotent rage.

“Because that little display of his biotics was just that, a show.  Alliance brass made it a point to remove his implant when they let him go, he’s unable to do more than flash people when he gets pissed.”  Explained a much relieved McGee as Dax simply stared balefully at the man.  “And then there’s Dax here.  Anytime he gets angry, he can back up his threats with more than a fancy light show.”

Dax didn’t move from his spot in front of the window, his arms crossed as he continued to stare.  “Ya know I can hear ya, right McGee?”

“Yeah but I’m wondering why you look ready to tear Mr. Alleron’s head off with your bare hands.”

Dax flicked his gaze towards the computer tech but otherwise remained still as a statue.  “Man’s a coward and he let his men die.  That good ‘nough of a reason for ya,  _ McGee _ ?”

“He means, why do you take it so personally?”  Ziva gently stated as she put a hand on the turian’s right arm just as a dark blue glow began to emanate from his body.  The glow died down just as quickly as Dax relaxed with a heavy sigh, but the hand on his arm didn’t move.  “Tell me, if not Timothy.”

The tension was slow to drain away from Dax’s tall, slender frame, but he met Ziva’s soft gaze all the same after some internal debate.  Once he’d relaxed, Dax began to speak, his dual flanged voice hardly above a whisper.  “I know turians aren’t always paragons of the community by any means, Ziva, but most of us take our responsibility to our fellow man very seriously.  Turian, asari, krogan, salarian, doesn’t matter what ya are when you’re sheddin’ blood in the same mud.  For a man like him though, he’s worse than varren shit as far as I’m concerned b’cause of his willful act of cowardice.”

“We don’t know the whole story, but if it helps, I agree with you.”  Ziva replied, just as softly as McGee slowly backed away to give the two some room.  Without looking, the former Mossad agent rolled her eyes.  “You don’t need to make yourself scarce, Timothy.”

“I was actually gonna go and interrogate Mr. Alleron before Gibbs got back and wonders why we didn’t get anything done.”

“Ah...right.  Excuse me.”  Without waiting for an invitation from either of them, Dax and McGee could only watch as Ziva flew towards the door from the listening post before entering the interrogation room long before the first door had reached its halfway point on its track.

Dax had to blink as he tried to process what just happened as the doors shut in Ziva’s wake.  “Did that...just happen?  I feel like I just got swindled after a round of drunken strip Skyllian Five poker.”

“I’ll give you this much Dax, Ziva runs circles around most everyone.  It’s part of her training, or her personality, I’m actually not sure which.”  Standing beside Dax in front of the window, McGee watched as Ziva appeared utterly bored as she looked through the information they’d been able to dig up from their extensive search of Hernandez Alleron’s life.

“So explain to me how someone like that goes gaga over an asari after only just meetin’ her?”  McGee had no answer for the former C-Sec officer turned ACIS agent as they waited for the interrogation to begin.

They did not have to wait long as Ziva finally looked up towards Hernandez after putting the information she’d been looking over on the holographic overlay against the right wall, in full view of those in the listening post as well as herself and their suspect.  “You’ve served on half a dozen Alliance war ships in your time.  No distinguishable achievements to speak of, but your scores were somewhat above average.  Your biotic ability however, were exceptional, especially for a surprisingly stable L2.”

“L2?”  McGee asked, having not read up much about the various ranks that biotics fell under before now, having never had much of a reason to.

“Combat capable in most cases.  L1s are barely able to move chairs across a wet floor.  Anything at L2 or above are pretty dangerous, especially if they have the implant to match their power.”  Dax explained as Ziva continued her interrogation.  “And before ya ask McGee, I’m at an L4 implant, my old one had to be upgraded durin’ the war at great personal risk to my health.  Lucky ta be walkin’ and talkin’, let alone still able to fight well above my former level.”

_ “I’m cooperating with you Officer David, despite the fact your two moron friends drew on me.” _

_ “You were glowing with dark energy, we didn’t know what you were capable of.  What would you have done in our place?” _  Ziva countered as she stood up before she slowly began to do her best impression of a lioness circling her prey as she walked around the table.   _ “Tell me about Hirsum, and try not to lie because I don’t need a gun to kill you.” _

“Geeze Dax.  Suddenly I find that my respect for you has gone up significantly.”  Gaped an astonished McGee as he looked between the turian and the window.

Dax chuckled humorously as he rubbed the back of his neck, where the implant resided, largely hidden by the lightly armored suit he wore when he was working.  “Don’t envy me McGee, I wasn’t given much choice.  Hierarchy needed more powerful biotics for the war, order came down, my unit got picked just as the first Reapers began to hit Palavan.  I was out on the ground six hours after surgery was done when I shoulda been out for six days, minimum, recoverin’ from the reimplantation.  Been stuck with this thing since.  Surgery went good, but I get real bad headaches when it rains, and I’ve since found out, D.C. rains, a lot.  Shoulda  _ really  _ did a bit more research ‘fore I jumped on your team’s boat.”

_ “I don’t know why you’re wasting your time with me when you should be looing for Hirsum’s killer.” _  Hernandez growled as once again, he began to glow a dark, iridescent blue, but unlike last time, Ziva hardly reacted save to fold her hands behind her back as she continued to pace just behind his chair.

_ “Because you’re currently our prime suspect, Hernandez.  So, naturally, I have to assume someone paid you for the shuttle routes which would allow the kidnappers to find and intercept the refugees.” _

_ “No.” _

_ “And, that’s when Hirsum found out you were the one responsible, you fled but not before hiring someone to question and kill her.” _

_ “I didn’t-” _

The loud bang from Ziva slamming a hand against the table as she got right next to his left ear made Hernandez jump and pull as far as the restraints around his wrists would allow.   _ “Don’t lie to me!  I can have you sent on the first flight to Leavenworth, put in general pop after letting the rest of your fellow inmates know the kind of cowardly scum you are.  I’d not like your odds since I hear people like you are considered just slightly above child rapists.” _  She’d chosen Leavenworth as part of her threat because he’d already spent time there, and from the way his face turned to an ashen gray, she knew he didn’t have pleasant memories of the prison as she slowly backed away from him.   _ “Or you can start telling me the truth and I might consider cutting you a deal.  You can start by explaining how your dog tags wound up clutched in her fist.” _

Dax raised an eyeridge when Ziva pulled up an image of the ruined dog tags they’d found in the salarian’s grasp.  Pointing at the picture with one taloned finger, he turned to McGee and asked, “Abby and Athame found out they were his?”

McGee looked confused as he cocked his head to the side.  “Last I heard she was still trying to recover the data while running the three sets of prints she found on them.”

“So Ziva’s lyin’.”  Dax stated rather than asked although his tone of voice made it hard to tell if he was impressed or just stating a fact.

“She does that.”  McGee replied, having long grown used to the team’s at times questionable tactics when it came to handling suspects.

“Huh.  Whatever works I suppose.”

It had the desired effect as Hernandez slumped in the chair and bowed his head, his voice cracking with every word.   _ “Hirsum….Hirsum left me for some asari she’d met shortly before her investigation started.  I gave her my tags in the hopes she’d...she’d come back before she passed.” _

When she saw the tears running down the older man’s face, she knew they didn’t have the murderer.  With a sigh and a subtle shake of her head towards McGee and Dax, she sat down across from Hernandez once more.   _ “Do you know the name of this asari?” _  She asked, far more softly and gently than she’d been only moments ago.

_ “No….no I don’t know.  Hirsum only talked about her once, but she sounded so….alive, as if she were twenty years younger.  I didn’t think anything about it at the time, but-” _  The realization hit about the same time it did for Ziva.   _ “You don’t think she killed Hirsum?” _

_ “It’s likely, especially if she knew about the refugees and was attempting to cover it up by removing Hirsum.” _  Hernandez lowered his head once more with a curse escaping his lips as Ziva pulled up the pictures Tony had sent back to the office before he and Gibbs had gone to investigate another lead.   _ “These were taken from Hirsum’s apartment.  Someone was looking for something.  Do you know what it might have been?” _

_ “Hopefully a means to find the refugees, because despite my making substantial money off of our deal, I genuinely do care about them, Agent David.  I only know what Hirsum told me, but if I know her half as well as I thought I did, she kept backups somewhere.  Backups on top of backups, and no, I don’t know where she kept them.” _

_ “We’ll find them, and we’ll find her killer.” _  Ziva promised, and while she wasn’t entirely convinced Hernandez hadn’t killed Hirsum, she was determined to find the one responsible.

Despite her lingering suspicions, Hernandez looked up and said,  _ “I believe you, Agent David.” _

“I don’t.”  Dax muttered but whatever anger had been fueling him had since began to bleed out of his body.  “He’s lying about somethin’ but not Hirsum.  He didn’t kill her.”

“You think he knows that asari he mentioned?”  McGee asked.

“Wouldn’t surprise me none.  Man in love, with a temper like his?  Coward or not, man like that would go a long way in gettin’ revenge.”  Something in Dax’s voice made McGee wonder if he had personal experience with such things.  Gibbs certainly did, according to Ducky the few times he’d heard about his first wife and daughter.  But whereas Hernandez was very vocal and obvious about his anger, Gibbs was much quieter when it counted, often exploding with unexpected yet calculating ferocity.  And now there was Dax, despite the visual cues he gave with his biotics.

=====================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS, Ballistics Lab**

**March 7th, 2195, 11;27 PM**

“I love my job sometimes.”  Declared a cheerful Abby as she gingerly lifted the fried remains of the dog tags she’d received some time ago.

“Only sometimes?”  Athame asked, her lips pulling up into a playful smirk as she watched Abby move to another part of their lab before setting the dog tags down within the confines of a scanner that would hopefully allow them to extract whatever information remained within the device.

“Okay, all the time.”  Abby replied, a light laugh escaping her as she waited for the scan to finish up.  “These things, despite having been smashed by some incredible force, were made to last.  Despite their best efforts to dispose of the evidence, I believe I can pull the ID information off of its internal data storage.  Not only that, but I was able to lift three sets of prints, two of which I’ve already matched with Hirsum and that guy Ziva’s giving the third degree to.  It’s the third one though I’m hoping will reveal who our mystery asari is.”

“Here’s hoping, while you’re doing that though, I’m hoping my own search will reveal something as to what the Hell’s going on.”  Abby raised a dark haired eyebrow as Athame’s fingers tapped furiously at the keyboard in front of her.  Sensing her eyes on her back, the asari rubbed the back of her wrist across her forehead and said, “There’s something about all this that feels vaguely familiar to me.  Why would a salarian allow herself to be interrogated and subsequently murdered, but only after someone took the time to sleep with her first?  I know I’ve heard come across something like this before but I can’t for the life of me remember where or when.”

“Don’t asari meld with their partners during sex?” Abby pondered and looked at Athame quizzically. “Maybe that was her way of getting information? And the rest was… some sort of sadistic game?”  She’d heard of some pretty sick people long before ending up in this time, so nothing would have surprised Abby anymore.

“It doesn’t exactly work that way.” Athame was quick to shoot that idea down. “When we meld with our partner during sex we aren’t getting much in the way of thoughts more… sensations, pleasure, emotions. Nothing coherent at least, although there have been reports of those that have been together for a long time being able to ‘hear’ the other’s thoughts during a meld, but that only happens for those that truly feel deeply for each other and aren’t exactly shy about sharing each other in that sense.”

“So it’s more empathetic than telepathic, gotcha.  So that would at least explain why Hirsum was injected with a truth serum.  Even if this salarian felt for her killer at all, chances are they hadn’t been together long enough for them to share thoughts with each other.  And if they had been that tightly bound, then she wouldn’t have had to go to such lengths in the first place to find what she was looking for.”  Abby emphatically waved her hands around as she paced to and fro in front of her work station, running through her thought processes at near light speed as she did.  Her caffeine intake probably didn’t help with her antsiness, but she normally didn’t bother to notice.

Athame did but didn’t feel the urge to say anything, too caught up in the puzzle currently in front of her.  “That sounds about right to me.  I’d almost say she was….”  Abby paused as Athame spun around on the spot, her eyes wide as a horrible idea hit her like a comet.  “Oh goddess I am so stupid!”

“What?”  Abby blinked as Athame dashed out of the lab.  With no other choice but to follow after her as she hit the button for the elevator that was just down the hall a ways, she didn’t ask as she saw they were heading for the morgue.  “I’m gonna take a guess, and say you need to talk to Ducky.”

“If she died the way I suspect, it’ll show up all over her nervous system.”  Athame replied as she reached out and impatiently pressed the down button repeatedly until Abby pulled her back.

“Take a breath, whatever it is, we’ll figure it out, that’s what we do.”

“You’re one to talk.”  Abby smirked but shrugged even as Athame took several calming breaths to get her whirling thoughts under control.  “I’m sorry, but it should have been obvious to me.  I had a bad feeling the moment I heard Hirsum had spent her last moments with an asari, but I don’t think I wanted to imagine it were possible.  Using the meld for anything other than to procreate or to give comfort to our partners….it’s one of our most sacred aspects of being an asari, so to think one of us might be capable of using it for something insidious as this….it was too much to consider so I blocked it from my mind without consciously being aware of it.”

“It’s a pretty big deal for your people huh?”

“You have no idea.”  Athame muttered just as the elevator door opened, allowing the stil upset asari to disembark with Abby hot on her heels as they made their way the short distance to Ducky’s part of the building.  They found the good doctor and Hamu still working over Hirsum’s remains when Athame stopped.  “Doctor Mallard, I need to know if you found any significant nerve damage throughout her body.”

Looking up from what they were doing, Ducky cocked his head to the side as he held up his forefinger in thought as he walked towards his own personal terminal.  “You know, I think we did.  I wasn’t sure what to make of it at the time, but I suspect you do.”  Ducky ripped off his gloves before tossing them into a nearby waste bin before beginning to rapidly tap at the keyboard in front of him.  In a few short seconds, he had Hirsum’s X-ray and scan data displayed on the screen.  “Yes, there was indeed an unusually large amount of activity throughout her entire nervous system, consistent with what I’d almost say was a near instantaneous shutdown of her conscious mind.  She’d have been-”

“In a vegetative state, if she didn’t outright expire immediately…..goddess, I know what did this.”  Breathed a suddenly very pale Athame as she felt her legs nearly buckle from whatever horrible realization had hit home.

“Care to clue us in?” Abby asked from the side and sent an uncertain wave towards the asari. “Or is this something asari don't like people knowing and you’d have to kill us if we find out.”

“It’s not exactly forbidden to tell others.” Athame explained slowly a rubbed her temples in frustration. “It’s just something we don’t like getting out, our dirty little secret if you will.”  Taking a steadying breath, the asari sighed heavily as she met the curious and worried glances from her compatriots.  “I’m half human and half asari on my mother’s side, or at least the equivalent of such in your understanding.  Any asari born, regardless of the parents involved, will always be asari, but we’re able to pick and choose those traits we find desirable anytime we meld with a partner.  Some of us stick with a single person for as long as we can, some of us simply choose a partner for a single evening.  Whatever the case, the result is the same.  But when two asari meld together for the sake of continuing our species, the result is what we’d call a pureblood, but therein lies the problem because there’s always a chance a genetic defect will raise its head.  It’s also a terrible insult to purebloods to be called such to their face, but that relates to this genetic defect that we don’t like to talk about.”

“I take it this explains how Hirsum died, this asari has this genetic defect?”  Hamu asked, to which Athame nodded as her gaze fell on Abby.

“That joke about vampires I made earlier has some bearing on this because what’s created when a pureblood asari is discovered to have this defect are not so dissimilar from your people’s myths about vampires.  We call them Ardat Yakshi, or roughly translated, ‘Demon of the Night Winds’.  When an AY melds with a partner, instead of a gentle melding of the nervous systems as is common between asari and their lovers, an Ardat Yakshi will violently overwhelm their partner’s system.  They drain away everything that makes you who you are, and you’re left in a coma and die in a couple of weeks, assuming the experience itself doesn’t kill you right away.”

“Good lord.”  Ducky murmured, his face paling considerably as he too began to put together what it was they were up against.

“Oh it gets better.”  Athame muttered as her hands involuntarily clenched up around the arms of the chair she had all but collapsed into.  “While it’s incredibly rare, even among AYs, to develop the lethal variety of their defect, it’s much more common for those afflicted to find it much easier to seduce anyone they set their eyes on.  It’s a perversion of what makes us so desirable to everyone, even other asaris that aren’t prepared for their influence, but even the strongest of them still must take at least two or more weeks for any noticeable effects to their partners’ psyches to manifest themselves, and even then enough time away from the AY in question will begin to undo their hold upon them.”

“That sounds less like a vampire and more like a succubus to me, but that doesn’t matter right now.”  Abby was quick to say when Hamu, Ducky, and Athame all gave her funny looks between them.  To Hamu and Athame’s surprise though, Abby walked right up to Athame’s chair and squatted down so they were almost eye to eye.  “But don’t beat yourself up over not saying anything sooner Athame.  We’re going to get her, and we won’t say anything about this, I promise.”

“Th-thanks Abs, but it’s not me or my people’s already tarnished reputation I’m worried about.”  While she was touched by Abby’s efforts to reassure and comfort her, Athame was more concerned with what would happen if Gibbs or anyone else stumbled across the Ardat Yakshi before they were prepared for what they were going up against.  Then another thought occurred to her and Athame could only groan.  “Goddess, Gibbs is gonna kill me.”

“That would be a problem, wouldn’t it?”  Ducky agreed, a ghost of a smile making itself visible on the older man’s face.  Abby smirked a little herself as she helped Athame to her feet and led the way back to the lab, leaving Hamu and the good doctor to finish up.  “Is it just me, or do they seem to be joined at the hip these days?”

“It is no surprise Ducky, as Athame herself said, most people can’t help but be drawn to the asari.”  Hamu chuckled to himself as they soon surrounded Hirsum’s body once more.  Now that they had a much better idea of how she’d died however, they both couldn’t help but take a moment to look down in quiet respect for the poor girl.  “As for you, to have your heart so tampered with by the one you thought you loved….I cannot think of a worse way to die, realizing that your lover is in truth simply using you for their own ends.”

“Yes, which means our black widow just took on a much darker aspect than even I had expected it would.  Being manipulated under normal methods is bad enough, but from what Athame implied, simply being around this Ardat Yakshi is enough to evoke a similar neurochemical reaction we call ‘love’, in her victims.  A truly scary thought.  It’s no wonder the asari are ashamed to speak of this often with what I know about them myself.”

“It is truly an unsettling thought.” Hamu agreed his black eyes fixed on the dead body in front of them. “It would be best if we were to inform Agent Gibbs of this immediately, I can do so if you wish.”

“No need, I’m quite used to him and his antics.” Ducky was quick to assure him with a gentle smile.  “Besides, we’ve known each other for many years, it’s even safe to say that we’ve been best friends for nearly as long.”

“That a fact Duck?”  Hearing Gibbs’ voice coming from his terminal, Ducky grinned as they saw the man had made a vid call to the morgue.  “You got somethn’?”

“Quite a bit in fact, thanks to Abigail’s assistant, but it’s a quite sensitive subject for the asari from the sounds of it.”  Ducky knew that Gibbs wouldn’t much care about such things, as long as he got his man that was enough for him.  Still, he wasn’t so callous or insensitive that he didn’t care altogether, he was just a very goal oriented man was all.  Before Ducky could try and explain what Athame had told them though, Abby’s face appeared on the other half of the vid screen.  “Oh, hold on a second Gibbs, Abby’s on the other line.  Yes Abigail?”

“I got a match on the third set of prints!  And I found something else on the dog tags outside of the ID information we were looking for.  Which do you want first?”

“Better start with the prints, Gibbs is looking mighty impatient on the other line.”  Explained Ducky as he glanced towards the silver haired agent as he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

“Hey Gibbs!  Okay, after hitting an impressive firewall and having to bounce my fingerprint search halfway across asari space once we knew what we were looking for, I found our mystery girl’s record.  She was apparently a ‘guest’ at a monastery up until nine years ago, where it was believed she had been kidnapped by the Reapers during the attack and turned into a Banshee.  Instead, it seems she got off the planet unharmed, and with her mind intact no less, and has been in hiding ever since otherwise one of the asari Justicars might have hunted her down by now.”

“We have a name Abby?”  Gibbs asked, and he was rewarded when Abby sent an ID page back in short order.

“Say hello to Yanis of the Kallini Ardat-Yakshi Monastary.  It might as well be a prison for the asaris’ unwanted genetically defected members since the only choice AYs have are to live in isolation or to be executed.  I’d want to escape too if I was in her shoes.”  Abby immediately regretted her words as she glanced towards an offscreen Athame.  “Sorry….but if it helps, you’re still awesome.”

“Thanks Abs.”  Athame replied as she squeezed in next to the goth.  “Agent Gibbs, be extremely careful if you find Yanis.  Do not engage her up close if you can help it.  If she’s been killing her mates as we know she did to Hirsum, she’ll be much stronger than most asari her age since their affliction makes them addicted to the act of melding, despite knowing full well that they’ll always kill their partners.  To make it worse, if she’s not working alone and if they’ve been around her for a sufficient amount of time, her allies will likely be willing to die for her if she simply asks them to, giving her time to get away if it looks like you’re going to arrest or kill her.”

“Great, sounds like a real picnic.”  A just visible Tony muttered from Gibbs’ side.

“Thanks Abs.  And Athame, we’re going to have a talk about you holding out on us when I get back.”  Without further preamble, Gibbs disconnected the line on his end, leaving Ducky and Abby to share a look as Athame sheepishly slunk off screen.

“Don't worry... he won't do... much... I hope."  Abby threw over her shoulder, but her lack of certainty didn’t help in Ducky’s opinion as she absentmindedly disconnected her side of the vid call next.

Ducky for his part only chuckled and shook his head as he turned back to Hamu.  “She’ll be fine.”

“Your lack of worry is reassuring.”  Mused Hamu as he too chuckled in response to the doctor’s infectious cheer.

========================

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., Germantown DZ (Dead Zone)**

**March 7th, 2195, 11;43 AM**

Flying through the remnants of the suburban area, Gibbs was quiet as Tony’s eyes immediately fell on the massive dreadnaught sized squid like machine that had fallen to ground where the Montgomery Campus Germantown College once stood.  “Can’t believe we were lucky enough to miss the rise of the machines, boss.”

“I wasn’t.”  Adri muttered as she too couldn’t help but look towards the dead Reaper in the distance, her body rigid and her hands clenched on her upper thighs.  “I’ve seen too many of those things to last me several of your lifetimes.  I’ve seen what they were capable of, what they did to people I trusted and fought beside most of my life.  The goddess must have been looking out for me because so many of my friends wound up indoctrinated, brainwashed by them….”

“How many you’d lose?”  Tony asked hesitantly even as his gaze fell towards the utterly demolished town on every side.  Streets were ripped apart, giant craters dotted the ground, entire buildings had been toppled and thrown aside like so much trash.  And while they were hard to spot from the air, in the middle of the night, Tony could see countless burned and decomposing bodies hidden among the debris and the grass.  The stories they’d heard were certainly proving themselves to be all too true as Tony’s stomach clenched in horror at what his eyes were telling him.

While Adri had since put her balaclava back over her face, both men could tell this subject was not one they’d be spending a lot of time on as she whispered, “Too many.  Far too many.”

“Spectre Adri.”  The asari jerked at the commanding tone in Gibbs’ face as she met his gaze in the rearview mirror.  She nodded her thanks and to show she was okay now before Gibbs broke eye contact with her.  “Looks like we’ll be getting a closer look at the giant squid.”

“If not for the fact they’re truly dead and not simply brain dead, I’d order us to stay clear of it since it was proven that even a ‘dead’ Reaper can still broadcast its indoctrination signal.  You might go into one as yourself, but you’d leave as its puppet without realizing it.”  Despite her assurances, Adri at least still didn’t like the idea of approaching the dreadnaught sized killer machine as Gibbs drove their car ever closer to the monstrosity.  “Once we’re inside be careful, these things are a literal maze.  And our friends have made their home in this one apparently, so they’ll have the home field advantage.”

“You haven’t seen Gibbs in action.”  Tony countered but they took her advice to heart regardless as they soon landed just outside of the impact crater the Reaper had left upon its fatal descent back to the ground.  The large, jagged hole near its center ‘eye’ spoke to how it had been defeated.  “Orbital strike boss?”

“I’d say so DiNozzo.”  Gibbs said as he made his way to the back of the vehicle before he pulled out a suit of light combat armor for DiNozzo before he pulled out a spare set for himself.  Adri stood guard some distance away, her gun out and her eyes on the Reaper for any sign of activity as they got dressed for their foray.  “Anything?”

“Nothing.  They must be further inside.”  Gibbs said nothing as he led the way forward.  Despite the lack of activity on the outside, it didn’t take them long to notice that someone had been busy in setting up the dead Reaper as their base from the simple, prefabricated walkways they found along with a number of simple storage shacks and utility buildings.  “Lights are on but nobody’s home.”  Adri noted as a series of automatic lights began to turn on when they got close enough.

“Keep your head on a swivel.” Gibbs ordered them and drew his weapon. “DiNozzo you’re with me.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“You are a spectre aren't you?  Do whatever you want.” Gibbs shot back and nodded once at Tony to take point.  Without a word, Tony pushed forward, gingerly peeking his head around the first corridor they came upon before he beckoned them forward with a wave of his free hand as he led with his sidearm ahead of him before he pressed onward.  They followed as quietly as they could, their ears strained for any sign of movement with every step, but nothing reached them as Gibbs couldn’t help but look at the oddly angled walls of the corridor they were in.  “This a normal thing?”

“Yes….although no one knows why Reapers are made like this exactly.  Many hypothesize it’s simply because they’re efficiency given form, designed for only one thing.”  That ‘one thing’ became painfully apparent when they passed a side chamber, where Adri had to put a hand over her mouth when her eyes fell upon the walls and ceiling that were lined with cutting implements and grasping claws.  “Ugh….a conversion chamber.  People were….people were led into chambers like that all over the galaxy, having no idea that they weren’t going to come out.  At least, they weren't going to come out the same way.  They’d be broken down to their most basic of genetic materials and fed into dozens of Reaper combat frames, Husks, Cannibals, Banshees, and more.  I can’t begin to imagine how many thousands of people went to their deaths in this one alone before it was over.”

“Uh… Boss, maybe it wasn't the best idea to come here alone.” Tony noted with some trepidation in his voice, but he was brought short when Gibbs none too gently slapped the back of his head.

Gibbs waited just long enough for Tony to look over his shoulder at the former marine before he asked, "Who are you more afraid of? The Reapers, or me?"

“Moving on Boss.”  Tony said as he once more began to walk forward, his stride noticeably quicker now after that rather heavy handed reprimand.

It still made it possible for Adri to smirk a little bit, allowing her to temporarily forget the fact they were walking around an ancient death machine.  “Interesting dynamic you two have.”

“It works.” Gibbs merely acknowledged and continued on deeper into the metal innards of the dead Reaper.

The three of them silently walked through one empty chamber or corridor after another, the sound of their footsteps the only thing audible to them.  While they found more signs of habitation, they didn’t find any actual people until they’d been exploring the area for the better part of ten minutes when Tony slowed and held up a hand as they came upon a much wider, larger inner chamber deep inside the Reaper.  A series of large metallic walkways, a part of the machine itself rather than added later for convenience, spanned the large chamber, along with a series of metallic boxes and dead, inert machinery scattered about the immediate area.  “Movement up ahead.”  DiNozzo mouthed over his shoulder so as not to alert the enemy to their presence.  It was all Gibbs and Adri needed as they readied themselves for whatever came next.

“-rsum might have given our location away to those federal agents.  It seems even your ‘charms’ failed us Yanis.”  A deep, gravely voiced man growled before Gibbs, having since moved up to a metallic barricade with a gun slot cut out of it, spotted a heavily armored, hunch backed alien stomp past.  The krogan was talking to a distant, slender, lightly armored asari some distance further in the chamber who glared imperiously down at the krogan, as if he were a mere servant that was getting out of line.  “You can stare down at me all you like, but your little love affair is going to get us caught, mark my words Yanis.  And your little defect won’t help you with me since I know better than to get close.”

“Be careful how you addre-”  A young man, younger than Tony if Gibbs was to guess, began, but the krogan silenced him with a savage punch to the stomach before slamming his head into the man’s face.  The human fell backward in a boneless heap, knocked out cold long before he hit the ground.

“Shut up you little pyjak.  The adults are talking.”

“If you could stop breaking my toys, I would ever be so grateful.”  The asari said snidely and scoffed.  “But he has a point, don't forget who you’re talking to.  Haven’t I given you everything you could ever want from our little scheme?”

“I’ll give this much to you, Yanis, you saved my hump during the war, and I showed you how to put a crew together and keep it together, but just because my life is yours doesn’t mean you get to order me around like one of your ‘toys’.  And yes, you’ve done a lot of work, making us filthy rich, but you should have simply killed Hirsum when you found out she was looking into those weaklings we sold off instead of giving her time to find out more information.”   
  
“She surprised me.  I thought my hold on her was ironclad, but her resistance was more powerful than I anticipated.  She even resisted that truth serum you supplied me from our batarian friends.”  Yanis muttered, seeming to mollify her guard and friend’s raising anger at the same time as she began to approach her downed human ‘pet’.  Kneeling down as the krogan backed away, either because she knew what she was about to do or because he was simply being cautious around her, Gibbs didn’t know.  He simply raised an eyebrow as Yanis’s eyes turned pitch black as she cupped the human’s face just as he began to stir.  “Welcome back, John.  Goodbye John.”

What happened next was….not pleasant to watch as John’s eyes bulged and his mouth drooped open as tendrils of dark energy lashed out between him and the asari.  He twitched and spasmed on the spot as if he were being electrocuted, but from what Gibbs could see, John’s face was soon locked in something akin to ecstasy even as something was torn away from him.  Yanis shuddered and moaned as she finished feeding from the human in her arms before letting his head drop free from her hands about the same time the biotic display died down.  “Mmmm….I should have been doing that years ago.  No wonder Morinth took to this life with as much glee as she did.”

“If you’re done, we should get out of here while we have a chance.”  The krogan rumbled as he glanced over one large shoulder just as Gibbs ducked down out of sight.  “It feels like we’re being watched.”

“It’s just this dead husk we’ve built our home into, nothing more.  But...I agree with you Razak, we need to abandon this place.  We’ll find another Reaper to set up shop in somewhere else, preferably somewhere with a much more available homeless population so we won’t have to rely on outside help again.  As much fun as it was to take Hernandez’s lover away, he’ll be a problem if he catches up with us.  I might have to make a house call-”

Gibbs chose that moment to pop out of cover alongside Adri and Tony.  “Freeze, ACIS!”

Yanis’s response was a powerful biotic shockwave that forced them to take cover lest they were blown away.  “Razak, now’s your chance to get even.”

“Got it.” The krogan muttered and pumped his gigantic shotgun before charging down the center of the large chamber, simply shrugging off their combined fire.  “Hehehehehe!”  The large battle hardened alien cackled as he slammed into Tony’s barricade like an armor plated rhino, smashing the metallic sheet with such force that he ripped right through it before turning to the agent that was desperately ducking for cover.  “Gotcha.”

“Not yet!”  Razak only had a split second to respond as Adri appeared between Tony and the krogan in a powerful biotic Charge.  The mercenary was blown off his feet as most of his ribs were dented if not outright broken, even through the thick armor he wore as he fell on his humped back.  Tony wasted no time in joining the asari as she began to unload in the krogan’s face, but he lashed out with his left boot, catching Adri off guard as she was knocked to the ground, her gun clattering away in the confusion.

“Adri!”  Tony yelled, but he was forced back down as Yanis shot haphazardly in their direction as she ran deeper into the dead Reaper.

Gibbs wasn’t so limited in his option as he snapped his gun towards the fleeing asari’s back.  Despite her attempts to stave off his assault by enshrouding herself in a barrier, he was still able to put a round in her right leg, just below the knee before she was able to completely shield herself.  With a cry, she limped off around the corner, but Gibbs had since turned to Razak as he rolled onto his front before clambering on top of Adri, one fist already poised to rain down on the asari’s cloth covered head.  Gibbs didn’t give him a chance as he unloaded his side arm into the large alien’s chest and head until the gun overheated, forcing him to wait for it to cool down before he could begin to fire anymore.

They needn’t have worried however as Razak froze mid swing before he slowly fell to the side and off of Adri, who slowly lowered her arms away from her face to see that she was safe.  “Where’s Yanis?”  She groaned as she slid out from beneath the dead krogan, only to be pulled right back down by Tony when several new assailants poured out of the passageway that Yanis had disappeared into.

“Gettin’ a little hot in here boss!”  Tony yelled as he popped up around the remnants of the metallic barricade to start laying into the new arrivals.

“You think?!” Gibbs shouted back as he leaned out of cover for a moment and shot three times in rapid succession.  The first two shots shattered his target’s shield while the third tore open the back of the woman’s skull a split second later.  A second fell just as easily as he attempted to charge the defenders down, a hard light shield taking shape along the man’s right arm a split second too late to save him from the bullet that drove into his chest once his shields were also torn away.  Gibbs grimaced as his shoulder was hit in turn by a third, but his own shields protected him from the worst of it as he ducked back down just as Tony popped up on the other side of the central corridor created by the various containers, inert machines, and metallic barricades.

While he was not a trained marine sniper, Tony was no slouch when it came to shooting down range.  Snapping his gaze up towards a crane laden down with a pile of metallic beams and pipes, Tony shot the thick, industrial strength ropes holding it all aloft.  While he was forced to duck as the attackers aimed towards him next, he heard their cries of alarm that turned to agonized screams, quickly cut off, as the metal beams smashed into their hiding spot.  “Not bad DiNozzo!”  Gibbs called out as the remaining two gunmen tried to back off, but Adri was there to meet them.

Both men watched as the asari put truth to the claim she was above the average rank and file as she effortlessly dismantled both of Yanis’s followers.  Having taken the time to flank them while they’d been distracted with Gibbs and Tony, the Spectre wrapped her arm around the first man’s throat after spinning him around, yanked his gun free of his hand, and unloaded it into his partner’s chest before viciously snapping his neck, letting his body fall about the same time the bullet riddled corpse did.  Glancing towards Gibbs and Tony as they carefully approached, mindful of the possibility of more trouble coming their way, Tony looked towards the two dead men at Adri’s feet and whistled.  “Damn, starting to appreciate having you on our side.”

“Marvel later, we need to move or she’s going to get away.”  Nodding her head towards the dark blue blood trail Yanis was leaving behind, Adri spared Gibbs a momentary approving nod before she took point this time.  Moving ever deeper into the labyrinth of disturbingly twisted hallways and wide chambers alike, they found themselves outside unexpectedly, staring at the remnants of the college’s west wing.  With only one way forward since either side led into the debris strewn crater’s walls, they continued to follow the blood trail into a near lightless tunnel that had been carved out by a stray blast from the Reaper itself.  They descended into the darkness as the sound of dripping blood and the creaking of metal slowly fell silent behind them.

====================

**End Notes** :   **Vergil1989** :  This actually took some more time than I’d like to admit because between helping Nomad get a Persona 5/Mass Effect story going, (which I none too subtly hinted at in the beginning of Artifice with Adri’s opening song lol), and not being sure exactly who would be the bad guy for this one, (although I had ideas, I just couldn’t settle on one was all), this ended up being delayed because of this.  Still, we’re done now and while I’m still not entirely happy with everything, I’m feeling much better about this chapter than the last one and I hope you guys and gals enjoy.  See ya next time!


	8. Artifice Part 4

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., tailing Hernandez**

**March 8th, 2195, 1;07 AM**

“I knew it.” Dax whispered excitedly. “I told you didn't I?  Follow that scumbag and he’ll lead us right to his little friend.”

“Yes you did, three times already.” Ziva muttered, impatience all to evident in her voice.  As it was, she couldn't even cow him into submission with her driving skills as Dax was currently the one behind the wheel.  He was the first one to point out that her style of using an aircar was completely unsuited to subtly follow someone, something that McGee was quick to agree to despite the fact he knew better from the times Ziva had tailed a suspect without alerting them to their presence.

“It’s good that we followed him.” McGee agreed and checked his omni-tool for any news of Gibbs. “But so far we haven’t seen anyone blue and psychotic.  If she’s still on the planet, she’s laying low.”

“Or the boss is on her tail as we speak.”  Dax countered as he navigated his way through the light air traffic while keeping two car lengths between them and Hernandez.  No easy feat, but this wasn’t his first time tailing a suspect like this as the turian began humming a tune under his breath until he saw both McGee and Ziva giving him curious looks.  “Hmm?  Oh, just a little ballad I heard a while back, been stuck in my head ever since.”

“What makes you think Gibbs has already found Yanis?”  Ziva asked, curious as to the reason Dax was already so sure of that fact even as she agreed with him.  Gibbs was good at his job, he always found a way to track down the worst of the worst.

Dax took his eye from the ‘road’ ahead and smirked knowingly towards the former Mossad agent that was slouched provocatively in the seat next to him.  “Why Miss Dah-veed, you can give me that coy look all ya like darlin’, but you and I both know Gibbs ain’t the kinda man to give up once he’s got a scent.  I’ve known folk like him before, he’s on her tail or I’ll eat my badge.”

“I suppose you have a point.” Ziva conceded and nodded towards the vehicle they were following. “So why are we after him?”  She had her own suspicions, but she liked to talk when there was nothing else to do with her time.  It helped to reach new ideas, to look at the pieces of a mystery like this in a different light.  She couldn’t count the number of times they’d found a way to catch their suspects just by going over the evidence in a different fashion.

“Well, he  _ is  _ involved in something shady and we pretty much confirmed that his lover was murdered by that mysterious asari that took her from him, my bet is he’s using his contacts to find her.”

“And when he does, so do we.”  Ziva stated with a grim nod of her head.

“Exactly, until then we lay low. After all, we can't show them our talons just yet.”  Dax grinned confidently as Ziva chuckled softly in reply, both of them certain that Hernandez would lead them right to Yanis’s front door before too long.

McGee for his part, once he had shaken his head at the two in the front seats, was busy doing his own legwork as he went back to scanning through what those at the office had sent regarding Yanis’s financials and comms records.  “Looks like Yanis called Hirsum pretty regularly about the same time Hernandez said she had likely made contact with her.  Nothing too long from what I can tell, but the calls become increasingly frequent as their ‘relationship’ continued uninterrupted until unexpectedly, Hirsum stopped calling Yanis.  It must have been about the same time she found out what she was really doing.”

“It must have broken her hold over Hirsum, if only temporarily.  Long enough for the salarian to leave us a trail to follow at least.”  Agreed a disgusted Dax as his taloned fingers curled over the ‘wheel’ in front of him.

“It’d certainly explain why she was able to resist the truth serum Yanis tried to use on her.  Even if she managed to sleep with her one last time, Hirsum likely regained her senses afterwards and gave it all she had to deny Yanis.”  McGee said as he paused in his scan of Yanis’s electronic history.  “We got red flags here, it looks like Yanis’s been trading the refugees to several well known slaver rings across the galaxy.  Money, arms, ships, it looks like she has a thing for luxury items from what I can see of her extranet purchases.  I have a last known address in Fairfax, VA for an assumed name.”

“Who?”  Asked Ziva as she turned around in her chair as far as her seatbelt harness allowed.

A few more quick taps at his omni-tool revealed the information she’d asked for as McGee said, “Samara Tel’vani.”

“The Justicar?”  Dax asked, the amazement in his voice clearly audible to both ACIS agents.  When they gave him confused looks, he quickly explained.  “She was one of Shepard’s crew after the first Normandy SR-1 was blown up by Collectors shortly after the first Battle of the Citadel, when we saw our first Reaper and what it was capable of.  Most of the 5th Fleet under Admiral Hackett was lost during that fight, but between them and Shepard’s efforts, Sovereign was blown away before it had a chance to activate the relay hidden within the Citadel.  It’s rather ironic then that Yanis would choose to use a famous Justicar’s name to cover her tracks, especially since most Justicars, when they aren’t righting wrongs everywhere they go, hunt down Ardat-Yakshis wherever they appear.  From what I heard, Samara hunted down one AY for centuries, and very nearly got her a couple times long before she joined Shepard’s crew.”

“Talk about determination.”  McGee muttered as he pulled up directions from where they were and where Yanis’s home under her assumed name was located and raised an eyebrow when he had the results.  “You were right, Alleron’s heading to Yanis’s home.  He knew who it was and didn’t say a word.”

“Would you if that was your gal on Ducky’s slab, McGee?”

“No, probably not.”  McGee reluctantly agreed as Ziva straightened in her seat once more.  “So what’s the plan?”

“Simple, we beat him there.”  Ziva stated as Dax peeled away from Hernandez’s trail just as his car turned down another street.  With a pretty good idea of where he was going, they didn’t need to follow him any further.

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., Germantown DZ (Dead Zone)**

**March 8th, 2195, 1;11 AM**

“Gettin’ some serious Alien vibes from this Boss.”  Whispered a slightly nervous DiNozzo as he led the way forward into the darkened tunnel ahead, gun first with Adri and Gibbs following just behind him.

“The original trilogy or the crap remakes?”  Tony paused and glanced at Adri as if she had grown a second head.  The asari raised her eye ridges in reply before saying, “What?  Elliot and I’ve spent more than a few evenings binge watching old movies together.”

“He know you moonlight as a sexy special secret agent?”  Tony had his answer when Adri remained tight lipped.  “Guess it’d put a damper on any romantic retirement plans between you two, what with you havin’ to kill him if he ever found out the truth about your late nights.”

“No...thankfully that wouldn’t be necessary in his case, but you are right, this life isn’t easy.”  Adri softly agreed.  “But I could never tell him what I do and have him see me as something else because of it.”

“You won’t have to worry about it if Yanis gets away.”  Gibbs softly whispered towards them both, the just audible note of warning silencing them both on the spot as they continued through the tunnel created by a round of molten slag traveling at near light speed.  The blood trail continued, until they reached a basement that was connected to the tunnel, where they found an empty vial stamped with the Sirta Foundation’s logo.  “Medi-gel, she had this place prepared.  Smart girl.”  Gibbs admitted as he tossed aside the empty vial before looking towards the nearby stairwell that led up to the rest of the house.

“Open med box over here Boss.”  Tony said and nodded his head towards a nearby container on a shelf, where a roll of bandages, slick with more of Yanis’s blue blood, resided.  “She took the time to patch herself up, she’s likely not too far ahead.”  Glancing around the next moment, Tony noticed that Adri had slipped away while he’d been distracted.  “Boss-”

Gibbs was already moving ahead, having figured out that Adri had gone ahead without them.  “Damn it.”  He cursed low in his throat.  While he agreed with the logic that they needed to stop Yanis from escaping, Adri was going to get herself killed, going off ahead like she had.  Wasting no time in running up the stairs after her, Gibbs and Tony barreled through the partially open attic door.  Seeing the front door was also partially open, Gibbs was the first outside just as he saw Adri being thrown across the lawn by another shockwave of dark blue energy followed by a quick barrage of haphazardly fired pistol shots.  To his surprise though, she rolled to her back, raised her omni-tool covered hand, and threw something towards a vehicle that had just begun to lift off the ground.

“Tracking beacon!”  Adri yelled over the roar of the engine as the car sped off into the night.  Clutching at her right side, the Spectre groaned weakly as she cradled her ribs, blue blood spilling from beneath her spread fingers.  “Ugh….don’t say it Agent Gibbs.”

“That you screwed the pooch?”  Gibbs asked as Tony ran back downstairs to search for anything they could use to patch her up while he helped keep pressure on the gunshot wound.

“Grrr….I thought I said….oh nevermind.”  Adri grumbled through gritted teeth.  “Signal...program on my omni-tool.”  She said as she fumbled with the controls to transfer the data to Tony and Gibbs.  “Can’t...let her get away.”  Adri’s face paled to a very unhealthy shade of blue as her eyes began to flutter closed despite a valiant effort to keep from passing out.

“We won’t.  Tony?!”  Gibbs called out as he kept pressure on the wound as best he could.  He breathed only a little easier when Tony ran back out, two more vials of the precious red liquid in hand, one of which he handed over the moment he skidded to a stop just beside Gibbs and Adri.  Jamming the injector into the wound, Tony held Adri down as she jolted upright from the sudden pain as the medi-gel began to seal the wound closed.  Gibbs remained focused on the task of keeping the injection steady as the medi-gel like foam hardened and began to turn a slightly off color shade of Adri’s flesh.

“Ow….”  Adri groaned as she relaxed once the worst was over.  “Ugh...I don’t miss that feeling at all.”

“Been thrown around before I take it.”  Gibbs stated now that the worst was over.

“Shot...thrown, blown up, yeah, I’ve had my share of close calls.  Ow….”  Adri groaned as she gingerly clutched at the now sealed hole in the side of her chest.  “That’s not gonna scar later.”  She muttered sarcastically as she began to stand to her feet.

“Meh, you can barely notice.  You sure you should be gettin’ up after that though?”  Asked a concerned Tony, a question the asari chose to ignore even as she swayed drunkenly from the blood loss she’d endured from hitting the ground as hard as she had followed by a lucky shot in the same span of time.  Both Gibbs and Tony were there in an instant to keep her steady, with Tony keeping a hand on her arm even when she glared at him in an effort to get him to back off.  “Yeah yeah, keep lookin’ all you like miss Spectre, you need to sit down.”

“I can still fight.”  Adri protested through gritted teeth as she jerked her arm free of Tony’s grasp.  Turning to Gibbs, she flared menacingly with dark energy, but it was the look in her eyes that had his undivided attention.  “One of those ships….Yanis’s thugs left a little girl’s doll behind.  I can’t let that go unanswered, not if there’s even a slim chance we can save her before she’s sold off to goddess knows who.”

“And what happens when Colonel Mann asks why you ended up dead?”  Gibbs asked in turn even as he sympathized with what she was saying.  She was a good agent, Spectre or not, and he understood all too well how far she’d go if it meant an innocent child could go home.  It was always the same story for people like them, but he couldn’t help but breathe a little easier when Adri’s eyes flicked to the ground between them even as she refused to move.  She perked up when Gibbs patted Adri on the shoulder as he started back for their car.  “You can come along, but you’re staying in the car.”

The real reason was that he didn’t think she could walk in a straight line without falling over, but Adri took the bone for what it was worth and smiled grimly as she ‘allowed’ Tony to walk her back to their car.  “And here I thought that extra ‘B’ in your name was for bastard.”

“It is,” Gibbs shot back with a just audible chuckle in his voice without turning to address her, “but you get used to it working with me long enough, Spectre Adri.”  Unlike the last time he’d said her name and rank, there was none of the earlier hostility and vaguely disguised suspicion in his voice.  There was genuine appreciation for what she was trying to do, and for what kind of person she’d proven herself to be.

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Fairfax, Virginia:  Fox Chapel Estates**

**March 8th, 2195, 2;01 AM**

Having landed some distance away from the sprawling, recently rebuilt estate in one of Fairfax’s more expensive stretches of land, Dax, Ziva, and McGee were the first to arrive.  Deactivating his omni-tool, McGee jogged as quietly as he could to catch up with the turian officer and the former Mossad agent.  “Gibbs just sent a message, said that he’s enroute with Tony and our Spectre friend.  They wounded Yanis, but she got away.”

“Well then, we best not let her get away then.”  Dax replied with the best impression of a human grin he could manage as he and Ziva pulled their side arms, with McGee following suit as they warily approached the large, three floor country home before them, a high metallic security fence giving it a measure of privacy and an air of secrecy.  Spotting a nearby camera attached to the fence’s leftmost corner facing the street, currently facing away from them, Dax whistled to Ziva, who grinned knowingly when she followed his gaze to the camera.  Running just beneath it before it could pan back around, Ziva pulled a knife from her belt as he and McGee ducked down behind a nearby car.  Nimbly climbing up the fence, Ziva promptly cut into the device before plugging her omni-tool in.  A few seconds later, and her hack program, a gift from a certain grateful quarian Admiral, went to work in shutting down the outside security feeds.

Sliding down and landing lightly on the ground a moment later, Ziva grinned a little wider as the front gate opened of its own accord.  “I do believe we have a case of breaking and entering.”  Ziva offered, a coy, mischievous grin on her lips as she gave them an ‘excuse’ to search the premises.  Despite the fact they had more than enough evidence on their side to warrant a search, it was more fun in its way to bend the law nearly to the breaking point.

“And bein’ the good agents that we are, we’d be remiss not to look into it.”  Dax replied, catching onto her reasoning as he took point with Ziva just behind him, which left McGee, as usual, to bring up the rear with an exasperated sigh escaping him at the continued back and forth between Ziva and Dax.  It was almost as bad as dealing with Tony and Gibbs, but as annoying as they were, he also couldn’t help but feel grateful to have them on the team.  Still, spotting Hernandez’s car parked haphazardly behind the same car Gibbs, Tony, and Adri had likely been chasing, he nodded his head towards the two vehicles to get his friends’ attention.

Putting themselves on either side of the front door after giving the vehicles a once over, Ziva was the first to spot the broken lock and someone’s very big bootprint embedded against the door itself.  Without a word, she gingerly pushed the door aside while Dax covered the entranceway before she slipped inside, silent as a ghost.  McGee brought up the rear, his eyes automatically snapping to the stairwell that split in two different directions at the other end of the large foyer.  The only movement were the curtains behind him shifting about.  Despite how dangerous their adversary was, they knew splitting up was the only option if they wanted any hope of getting to Yanis and searching her house for any of the missing refugees in a timely fashion.

Hearing a scuffle above, Ziva, who’d just been about to enter what looked like a well appointed living room complete with dark blue and black leather couches and seats, started back the way she had just came before movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.  Beginning to turn, Ziva had only a split second to duck as a knife slashed where her head had just been.  Without needing to think, her free hand lashed out, her fingers pressed firmly into the shape of a ‘knife’ of her own, and she jabbed her bunched up fingers into the assailant’s throat before following with a spin kick to her attacker’s face.  Hitting the ground hard just beside the table, Ziva leveled her gun on the woman sprawled out before her.

“Y-Yanis….I can’t fail her!”  Taken aback by the frantic look in her eyes, Ziva was glad McGee and Dax came running since she was not about to let her guard down around the woman at her feet.

Kicking her knife away, Ziva planted a foot on the half naked woman in front of her.  The little ‘love bites’ and scratches across the dark brown haired woman, who couldn’t have been older than twenty tops, spoke of just what she was being kept in the house for.  “She’s out of her mind.”

“Yanis’s been at her, and from what Athame’s said, this’ll be the norm for anyone else in this place.”  Dax replied as he produced a pair of omni-cuffs before he and McGee rolled her over before efficiently binding her hands behind her back.  “Not her fault though, but we need to keep moving.”

“Intruders!  Mistress will have your hides!”  It was Dax’s turn to yelp, a surprisingly unmanly sound escaping his mandibles, when he was tackled to the dirt by an equally crazed young man that, like the woman already bound on the ground, couldn’t have been much older than twenty-two or so.  Not that the turian was in a position to notice as he and McGee tried to restrain this latest ‘plaything’ among Yanis’s twisted harem.

It took some doing between the three of them, made harder as the woman kicked out frantically against Ziva and McGee as she tried to help her friends to restrain the young man between them, but they got him under control in due course.  “How many more...are there?”  McGee wheezed as he and Dax flopped tiredly against the couch.

“Don’t know….but yeesh!  Spirits, this is nuts.  Seen a lot of strange shit in my time, but this takes the cake.”  Dax groaned as he pressed a hand against his bleeding nose, having taken a hit to the face from the back of the man’s head when he’d unexpectedly jerked backwards during the scuffle.

Leaving them to get their breath back, Ziva pushed ahead but not before switching the ammo block for the rubber, non lethal variant instead of the standard issue tungsten block.  If there were anymore of Yanis’s prisoners turned brainwashed minions running around, she didn’t want to simply kill them if she could avoid it as she entered a long hallway, with a number of spare bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, and a sitting room that at first glance, didn’t appear to be more than that.  That was until she spotted a glass container with a number of blue and yellow pills contained within.  A quick scan of the contents with her omni-tool revealed what was inside.  “Hallex.  Illegal substance in most civilized systems.”  While compared to human trafficking, possession of a controlled substance was a relatively minor offense, but Ziva still added it to the list of reasons to remove Yanis the moment the opportunity presented itself.

Spotting a quickly approaching shadow, Ziva waited for the unknown assailant to pass before immediately stepping out and putting a rubber round into the person’s back.  They fell with a cry and a curse as they hit the ground a couple feet away.  Putting a second into their right leg, Ziva none too gently bent down to slap a pair of cuffs on the man.  “Got a third!”  Ziva called to Dax and McGee as she rolled him over onto his back.  The frantic look in his eyes matched the other two they’d already subdued.  He was also just as young if not younger than them as well, which meant that Yanis liked her ‘partners’ young, likely because it made them easier to control.

Kicking away the weapon he’d dropped, Ziva stood and started down the hall just as Dax rounded the corner to secure this latest adversary with the rest while McGee watched his back.  Stalking silently forward as best she could, Ziva stopped at the end of the hall after glancing into the various rooms, seeing more of the hedonist that Yanis apparently was, and heard a light scuffle of feet just ahead.  Peering around the corner, she saw Hernandez ducking into a room just out of her line of sight.  Ziva slipped around the corner in silent but focused pursuit.  Looking to the other side of the room though, Ziva saw a vehicle landing just behind the estate.  She knew they were running out of time if that was enemy reinforcements, so putting on a burst of speed, she followed after Hernandez with the full intent of stopping him before he got himself killed.

Seeing another flight of stairs, these much smaller than the grand foyer’s, Ziva looked up as she saw movement above.  With no sight of the former Alliance officer, she had to assume it was Hernandez that had already raced upstairs to kill Yanis for what she’d done to Hirsum.  Looking at the wall just in front of her, Ziva’s eyes darted to a mirror bolted to the wall about the same time she saw someone approaching from behind.  Whirling on the spot, her gun snapped upward, but before she could pull the trigger, she found herself frozen on the spot.

While it wasn’t Yanis, the same ‘love struck’ look on the asari’s face did little to settle Ziva’s nerves as she stepped into the light of the dimly lit stairwell.  The swirling dark energy that kept her from moving practically enveloped the scantily clad ‘woman’ in front of her, an elegantly curved blade in her off hand.  “The goddess Yanis shall accept my sacrifice, and give her love to me in return.”  Raising the knife above her head, Ziva could only move her eyes to follow its progress as the asari prepared to drive it into her chest.

Jerking as several rounds slammed into her chest and side, the asari did a sickening parody of a dance as large holes, oozing bluish purple blood, appeared in her flesh before she collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap.  About the same time, Ziva was released from the Stasis field, but she didn’t give it much thought as she turned to see McGee and Dax running down the hall.  “Ziva, you okay?”  McGee asked, his concern written all over his face as he came to a stop just in front of her followed shortly by Dax.

“Y-yes, I will be at least.”  Ziva replied, a little shaken but far more grateful for their timely arrival.  “I owe you two.”  She admitted, but both men were quick to wave her off.

“Bah, no worries Ziva.  We get this bitch, I’ll call it even.”  He declared, but she wasn’t fooled by his cavalier attitude as she saw what was behind his feigned cheer.  It’d been a very close call and they knew it.

Still, she let it go but not before conveying her thanks for their quick arrival with a look before she continued forward.  Despite her earlier hesitation to keep casualties to a minimum, Ziva didn’t feel particularly bad about switching her ammo block back to the standard tungsten that would not fail to kill anyone on the receiving end.  Darting up the stairs, Ziva kept her gun trained ahead of her while Dax and McGee covered her and the top of the stairs respectively as they warily moved forward.

The earlier clattering they’d heard returned, with the sound of someone angrily slamming open a door.  Catching sight of Hernandez’s shaved head, Ziva was the first to level her gun in his direction.  “Hernandez!  Weapon on the ground, now.”  The pistol in his right hand jerked as he slowly turned, his surprise giving way to angry resignation.

“You’re going to let that bitch get away!”  Hernandez roared, but he wasn’t so blind to his rage that he couldn’t see the deadly gleam on Ziva’s face as she was soon joined by Dax and McGee in short order.

Movement behind the large, ex marine caught Dax’s attention a moment too late as a hand burst forth from Hernandez’s chest about the same time a menacingly dark aura of dark energy appeared around them both.  With a surprised, gurgling gasp, Hernandez could only look down at the blood soaked hand sticking out of his chest before it was retracted and he was allowed to fall to his face in front of them with Yanis giving them all a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.  “What?  It’s not like he didn’t have it coming.”  She grinned wickedly as she summoned a barrier around herself all while she walked backwards about the same time all three agents unloaded their ‘clips’ into her.  The bullets harmlessly bounced off her biotic shield though, waves of energy rippling outward with every impact.  “Really?  You deactivate my security, break into my house, and tear through my little harem and that’s all you have?”

The silky, sultry laugh that escaped her was absolutely chilling as she casually looked to her blood covered hand before making a face as she continued to walk.  When Dax stepped forward, putting his gun away as he did, they saw that he too had begun to glow with a similar light as the asari as he balled his talon hands into tight fists.  “Alright, ya made your point Yanis.  Brute force just won’t cut it.”  Snapping his right hand up in a flash, he released a swirling mass of blue energy that exploded outward into a sucking vortex that had Yanis stumbling back in surprise before she reached out her hands to either side of the hallway, her barrier falling at the same time.  Literally glowing with rage, Yanis shot forward, flinging herself at the approaching Dax, who was ready for her as he casually grabbed her by the throat and her leading arm before tossing her towards the stairwell.  She hit the railing in a heap but was up in a flash just as two more of her minions ran up the stairs to assist her.

Ziva and McGee didn’t need to be told to keep the area clear for Dax to handle Yanis as they shot down towards the pair of brainwashed individuals.  Catching his next biotic assault in one hand, Yanis threw it back towards the center of Dax’s chest, but he casually batted it aside before grabbing the Ardat-Yakshi by the throat.  Despite Athame’s warnings not to engage her up close, Dax was proving the much more capable combatant as he slammed a biotically assisted punch into the woman’s stomach, powering through her failing defenses and driving all of the air from her lungs in the same instant.  Dropping her to the ground, he kicked her across the face for good measure, knocking her out cold.  “Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it though.”  Dax admitted as he dusted his hands off before turning to Ziva and McGee.  “Still good?”

Having dispatched their own adversaries by that point, Ziva took one look at the downed Yanis and smirked approvingly.  “I see why you were the unit leader to your Cabal group, Dax.  Not bad.”

“Heh, thanks.”  Pulling out a pair of biotic dampening cuffs for this particular threat, Dax slapped them onto Yanis’s wrists before punching her one last time in the face for good measure.  Looking towards Hernandez, Dax’s smirk faded away in an instant, and he made his way to the man.  Gently turning him over, Dax grimaced at the grisly sight of the man before looking down and away from his shocked expression.  “Coward or not, the man tried to do what was right in his own way.  I can’t fault him that.  Spirits...it was so much easier to hate him.”  Dax muttered as he reached up and pulled Hernandez’s eyelids closed as gently as he could.  “Might have disgraced the uniform, but you deserved better than this.  You and Hirsum both.”

“That they did.”  Looking up towards the soft reply, McGee immediately perked up a little when he saw Tony, Gibbs, and the cloth covered face of their Spectre friend coming down the other end of the hallway.  Gibbs sighed at seeing Hernandez hadn’t made it before nodding his head towards Yanis.  “So what happens with her?”  He asked Adri, to which she answered by simply looking away.  “Not here.”

“A quick death is more than she deserves anyway.”  Adri muttered angrily, but she made no move to execute the asari sprawled out between them.  Instead she raised her left hand and Lifted the woman off the ground before turning on her heel, Yanis’s unconscious body trailing a foot off the floor.

“Tony, McGee, go with her.  Ziva-”  Gibbs never got to finished as the team split up to go about their expected tasks.

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS**

**March 8th, 2195, 9;07 AM**

Abby was all smiles as she and Athame walked into the ACIS bullpen that morning, the perpetually happy goth all but bouncing on the balls of her black leather boots.  “Gibbs!  Gibbs!  Gibbs!”  She cried excitedly as the older man jerked upright in his chair, having fallen asleep at his desk the moment he and the rest of the team had walked in.

Rubbing his eyes, Gibbs groaned and shook his head before giving Abby an expectant look.  “Someone better have coffee.”  Athame’s contrite look as she handed over a fresh cup of his preferred brew didn’t go unnoticed by the marine as he glared over the rim of the synthetic plastic cup.  “And we’re still going to have that talk.”  Taking a sip from the cup, Gibbs nodded his approval before he amended his earlier statement.  “But you did good when it mattered, Athame.  So what do you two have?”

“I’ve been wonderin’ that myself.”  Dax yawned and stretched his arms over his head before he began to rummage around in his desk.  With a cry of delight, he pulled out a candy bar before unrolling the wrapper.  When Tony started giving the tasty looking treat more than a passing interest, Dax just grinned and kicked his feet up onto the desk’s surface, glowing a dark blue to deter any funny ideas.  “I wouldn’t recommend it DiNozzo, we ain’t genetically compatible, so unless ya’ll like having your stomach pumped, I’d keep your mitts off my snacks.”

“Ah...good to know.”  When Abby and Athame glared at the two of them, Tony and Dax muttered apologies for interrupting whatever it was they’d brought up from the lab.  “Please continue ladies.”  Tony invited with a bow and a gesture of his hand.

Abby leaned forward menacingly for a moment before straightening just as quickly.  Tapping at the omni-tool on her arm, the central monitor flared to life, revealing a picture of the dog tags that had been pulled from Hirsum’s fingers.  “They belonged to Hernandez as he said, I was able to pull the ID information shortly after you guys left, but we also found a hidden partition inside, containing Yanis’s ‘client’ list.  Between the two of us, we were able to electronically follow the refugees to their final destinations.  Director Shepard’s since passed the information onward to the various agencies, with the full intent of having them rescued the first chance we get.”

“It must have been what Hirsum got her hands on.”  Ziva noted as she too rubbed the sleep from her eyes before taking a sip from the cold water bottle Athame had set in front of her shortly after leaving Gibbs his coffee.  With a nod of thanks, she took a sip before setting it aside.  “If that’s the case, then it certainly explains what must have started her breaking free of Yanis’s control, but not how she maintained her autonomy.”

“That’s actually easy to explain.”  All eyes turned to Ducky as he joined the group.  With a nod, Abby pulled up another image, this one some kind of metallic implant with a built in reservoir of some kind built into one side.  “I found this in the remains of Hirsum’s gray matter you were kind enough to have brought back home.  From what we can speculate, Hamu and I believe Hirsum was able to build herself a kind of neurochemical blocker to counteract Yanis’s ability to ‘sway’ her to her way of thinking.  With as much damage to the back of her skull that was present however, we’d have never found the surgical scar that was likely there.  If Yanis discovered the scarring, it would explain why she killed Hirsum as violently as she did once she had fed her addiction first.”

“Yeesh.  Where do you think she got the head plant done?”  Tony asked, to which Abby grinned knowingly.

“What I want to know is where the AGeS van wound up.”  Ziva mused before Athame perked up this time.  “At the bottom of a river?”

“Close.  Abandoned in a warehouse owned by AGeS under Hernandez’s name.  He was likely panicking and trying to get Hirsum to a hospital despite no doubt realizing it was too late for such things, but when the door opened unexpectedly, he kept going.”  Athame explained before a palpable air of melancholy filled the room.  Dax himself looked the most uncomfortable with the reminder they’d failed to save him even if she hadn’t meant anything by it.  Walking over to his desk, the asari waited until he had glanced up at her before reaching out to put a hand on a shoulder while she made a short series of gestures with her free hand, the glow of her omni-tool the only indicator she wasn’t just making idle movements.  What she said next, only Dax understood since she had deactivated her universal translator.  Smiling appreciatively at whatever she’d said, Dax returned the gesture with similarly alien words to her, before they both turned on their UIs once more.

Walking away despite a number of curious looks following her, Athame gave the turian one last look over her shoulder before she ducked into the elevator, with an equally curious Abby hot on her heels.  “Huh….”  Ducky murmured before they turned their attention to Dax, who had since set aside his candy bar.  “Dare I say that exchange seemed rather...intimate.  Care to share with the rest of us?”

“Sorry doc, some things are best left to the imagination.”  Replied a quietly smug if grateful Dax as he finished the rest of his snack before casually tossing the wrapper into the wastebasket by Tony’s desk across the bullpen.  “Don’t say I didn’t give ya nothin’ DiNozzo.”  Tony made a face in retort but otherwise remained quiet.  Ducky chuckled and left a moment later with a mirthful shake of his head.

Smirking to himself as well despite everything that had occurred, Gibbs glanced towards the clock before going back to his paperwork.  “Soon as paperwork’s done, go home.  You’ve all done good.”  Jerking upright in their respective seats, Gibbs glanced up as he saw the pleasantly surprised glances from them all.  “Go home.  Get some sleep, I plan to.”

“W-well thanks boss.”  McGee offered hesitantly once he’d been able to get past his initial surprise.  “But I think we’re f-”  A wadded spitball from Tony silenced him on the spot.  “Really Tony?”  He grumbled with an audible roll of his eyes.

“Yes, really, Elf Lord.  Don’t look a gift Gibbs in the mouth.”  Tony retorted before shooting their boss a grateful, encompassing grin from his desk before he returned to finishing up his own paperwork regarding most of what had occurred between them and Yanis’s ‘minions’.  The only part they all left out was Adri’s true identity, but as if summoned by his thoughts, they turned and saw Elliot running up to the woman in question the moment she stepped out of Shepard’s office.  Seeing them embrace, Tony’s grin faded to a much more wistful, sad frown.

“Thinking about  _ her _ ?”  Ziva asked quietly, gently, knowing full well it was still a very sore subject for the man.

“Y...yeah.”  Tony admitted since it was pointless to deny it.  “Doesn’t matter if it was part of the job….”

“You didn’t go into that undercover assignment looking to hurt anyone, that’s the difference.”  Ziva countered, but while Tony appreciated the effort, he couldn’t shake the guilt that lingered in his chest.

“Yeah….tell that to Jeanne and her dead arms dealing father.”  Muttered a suddenly very tired Tony as he got up from his desk, coat in hand and slung it over his shoulder before he started for the elevator.

Dax sighed, deactivated his terminal, and pushed his chair in before running after Tony before he could disappear into the elevator.  “Come on DiNozzo, let’s get a couple of beers ‘fore we head back.”  Despite his morose mood, Tony managed a smile for the turian as the elevator doors shut in front of them.

Following their example, Ziva stood, gathered her things, and started past Gibbs desk, but not without saying a ‘good day’ to the man.  Gibbs looked up and nodded his head in response, no words needing to be said between them more than that.  Satisfied, Ziva left just as Adri broke away from Elliot before making her way to Gibbs’ desk.  “Agent Gibbs….thanks for helping with that...problem.”

Gibbs nodded his head even if her attempt at subtlety was rather lacking in this instance.  “For a singer, you’re better than most of your type, Adri.”  He replied, to which Adri smiled appreciatively for his discretion but also his kindness before he nodded towards Elliot.  “Will you tell him the truth?”

“He already knows.”  Gibbs cocked an eyebrow up at that, but Adri’s sheepish chuckle told him what she soon confirmed.  “He figured it out a lot sooner than I had given him credit for.”

“It helps that our ‘tour route’ was a little too coincidental.”  Eliot remarked as he approached and wrapped his arms around Adri’s midriff from behind, careful not to touch where she’d been shot several hours ago.  “I might not be an….investigative agent, but my grandmother’s perceptive nature still passed on to me it seems.  Besides, no offense honey, but you need some more practice at slipping away ‘on business’.”  He chuckled even when Adri playfully slammed an elbow into his side as best she could.  Stepping around and letting her go in the same movement, he held out a hand to Gibbs in the next moment, which Gibbs accepted without needing to think about it.  “And thanks for keeping an eye on my girl Agent Gibbs.”

“She’s a good singer.”  He replied simply as he pumped Elliot’s hand firmly before letting him go.  “You’re lucky to have her, Colonel Mann.”

“That she is, and yes I am.”  Elliot replied before he shrugged, as if he’d come to a decision of some kind, and before Adri could begin to guess what he was up to, he pulled out a little black box.  With a gasp as her hands flew up to her mouth, Elliot smiled widely as he casually flipped the lid open before carefully pulling the ring out from its velvet bed.  “So….that a yes darling?”

Gibbs chuckled warmly as Adri accepted the offered ring, her hand trembling as Elliot slipped it onto her ring finger.  “Is that a trick question you big, loveable dork?”  She gushed, her eyes damp with tears as she cupped the young man’s face between her hands before her lips found a new home against his.  Chuckling with every step, Gibbs walked away to give them some space.

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., Ziva’s apartment**

**March 8th, 2195, 1;07 PM**

Having fallen asleep on her couch after their long night, Ziva woke with a start when she heard her front bell ring.  Checking the outside security camera on her omni-tool, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when she saw a familiar, aquamarine skinned asari outside, an all too familiar sultry grin on her face.  Despite having dealt with such a twisted, monstrous asari not so long ago, seeing Shi’shaa’s face was strangely a relief to the former Mossad agent as she quickly straightened herself out as best she could.  Raking a hand through her hair before tying it off in a loose bun, Ziva smoothed out the ruffles to her night gown, picked up her fallen book she’d been reading, and spoke into her omni-tool as she made for the door.  “I’m coming.  Sorry, it’s been a long night.”

“Don’t worry about it Ziva.  I just thought I’d stop by, but I can come back-”

“N-no, that won’t be necessary.”  Ziva replied hurriedly, momentarily surprising herself with the urgency in her voice before she shook her head.  Rationalizing it away as just a side effect of coming so close to being killed, again, Ziva passed her hand over the door with a smile as Shi’shaa stepped inside.  “I’m...actually glad you found me, but how did you?”  Ziva asked, not so exhausted her long time ingrained paranoia didn’t decide to flare up on her.

Shi’shaa smirked but nodded, as if having expected the question.  “Well, after our run in at AGeS, I thought I’d try my luck before I went off world in a few days.  ‘Sides...you’re not the only one that wanted some company, not after hearing Mr. Alleron had been murdered.”  Ziva looked away at that even as she gestured towards the simple leather couch in her comfortable living room.  “You don’t seem surprised.”  The asari stated rather than asked as her eyes gently scanned the woman’s face as she sat down.

“No...I’m not.  Another asari killed him right in front of us...in front of me.”  Ziva sighed tiredly and ran a hand across the side of her head before leaning back.  “To make it worse, she completley shrugged off everything myself and another agent could throw at her.  I’ve gone up against strong opponents before, but I’ve never-”

Ziva’s words died in her throat when she felt Shi’shaa’s hand slowly run across her wrist, her fingertips a gentle caress across the back of her hand.  “You’ve never been that powerless before.”  She finished for her before she looked away this time.  “I….understand what that’s like.”  Turning her right hand over, Shi’shaa couldn’t meet Ziva’s gaze when she laid eyes on the series of numbers and an immediately familiar symbol on the underside of her arm.

“Cerberus.  You were a prisoner?”  She knew she had it wrong when Shi’shaa didn’t move so much as a muscle.  “An experiment?”

“I’d have preferred the former….at least then I could have pretended I was a person to them.”  The lingering resentment and years old pain was quite audible in the woman’s trembling, whisper soft response.

“What were they after?”  While she didn’t expect an answer, Ziva still felt compelled to ask as she made it a point to trace her fingertips over the serial number forever etched into the alien’s flesh, making it clear she wasn’t afraid of what it meant or what it likely meant to Shi’shaa.

“Funnily enough they weren’t interested in sharing with their ‘property,’ no matter how many times I asked.”  Shi’shaa replied before she slowly looked up, amazement evident on her face as she trembled under Ziva’s soft touch.  A smile slowly returned to her lips even as old memories swirled behind the woman’s dark brown eyes.  “I heard enough to get an idea though.  They wanted stronger biotics in their minions, and they were hoping something in our DNA could help them achieve it.  Since this was during the war, no one noticed a few missing asaris out of the billions of people that were dying across the galaxy every day until it was over.  I don’t know if they ever found what they were after before Shepard and her team shut them down, I just know I escaped their little freak show before they could cut me open and stuff goddess knows what into me.”

“It would seem we’re both haunted by the past.”  Ziva replied as gently as she could, memories of Ari’s death by her hand, of losing her sister Tali, and more besides began to make their rounds behind her own brown eyes.  “I cannot speak to being captured, but….I’ve endured my own trials that have shaken me to my core.”

“I’d...like to hear them sometime.”  Shi’shaa offered hopefully, to which Ziva smiled and nodded her head.

“As long as you do the same, Shi’shaa.”  Who moved forward first, Ziva could never remember later, only that despite having only just met not so long ago, it felt completely natural to embrace the asari as she did the same.

Ziva never saw the predatory gleam in Shi’shaa’s eyes as her head rested against the woman’s shoulder…..

**===============**

**End Notes:** **Vergil1989:**  Ruh roh Raggy, it looks like Ziva might be in trouble.  Hehe, I’m such an evil person.  Don’t worry though, whatever she’s up to, it won’t happen right away, but feel free to speculate as time wears on.  And no, Shi’shaa’s  _ not  _ an Ardat-Yakshi, I promise.  Forgetting the fact they’re incredibly rare, even the non lethal variant needs much more time to have any lasting effect on their partners.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t something else at work here though.  ‘Evil laughter ensues’  ‘Ahem.’  I do want to apologize for the long ass delay though.  Between having an immense amount of difficulty in finishing this one and a bunch of RL stuff coming up, it absolutely killed my inspiration for this story for some reason although I didn’t seem to have any trouble with  **Nomad-117’s Semper Ad Meliora** , a Persona 5/Mass Effect crossover although it’d be safer to say it’s most of the Persona series crossed with ME, with a focus on P5 since the main group are the Phantom Thieves.  Anyway, again I apologize for not getting to this sooner everyone but I HOPE this was worth it.  See ya for now!

**Sandblasted** will hopefully be coming out a lot sooner with everyone’s favorite biotic goddess making her first appearance as the team investigates Grissom Academy.  Look forward to the shenanigans between Gibbs and an understandably paranoid former hardass criminal trying to keep her students safe the only way she knows how.  Lol anyway, see ya!


	9. Sand-blasted Part 1

**Minor warning** :  Harsh and colorful language follows in this chapter, but for those that know, Jack was never one for niceties lol.

**=========**

**Sand-blasted**

**=========**

**The Jon Grissom Academy**

**JGA station: orbiting Elysium**

**March 15th, 2195, 7;37 AM**

“I hate morning runs.”  Having made the mistake of signing on to the advanced combat course on a dare, one he’d lost which only made it worse, Private 1st class Charles Ferguson could already feel the ache in his legs as he and the thirty odd other students did their best to keep up with the ‘den mother’ of their dorm as they ran the length of the rotunda of the recently rebuilt space station.  Really it was safer to say it’d simply been repaired after the Reapers hit, but whatever the case, Charles was not in the mood to appreciate that particular fact as he did his best to keep up the pace.  “You sure she’s even human?”

“I’d shut it before she hears you, Charles.”  Margaret Thetford, another private, whispered out the corner of her mouth even as she too panted and wheezed with every brisk step forward. With a quick wave of her hand she moved her platinum blonde hair, which was impeccably cut to the regulated length, out of her face.   “Ms. Nought doesn’t take kindly to people who complain about her early morning runs.  That we get to follow in the biotic goddess’s footsteps at all is an honor in my opinion.”

“Tch, and now I know who’s going to be the teacher’s pet this year.”  Another of the students muttered just loud enough that the rest of the group chuckled in response.  Margaret simply turned her head as a disapproving scoff escaped her at their antics, her gold flecked brown eyes narrowing into a glare as she peered into Charles’ brown ones, daring him to laugh along.  The one that had spoken, Natalia Howlett, squeezed in between Margaret and Charles, a teasing if tired grin on her face.  “Seriously though guys, she might be real rough around the edges, but she’s got a heart underneath those sexy tats and the synth leather.”

“I also have  _ really  _ good ears.”  All of the students paled even though the smile was audible in the older woman’s voice as Jack turned her shaved head so she could let her eyes rove over them all.  Seeing how tired most of them were, the former Cerberus experiment child biotic prodigy sighed before running a hand across the back of her implanted skull.  “Take five guys, but I expect you to be ready to move as if your butts were on fire.  And Charles?”  The young man paled further at being singled out as Jacqueline ‘Subject Zero’ Nought leveled her eyes on him fully.  “If you’d had asked a question like that before a certain, annoyingly patient, charismatic paragon of virtue saved me from spending the rest of my life as an ice block or someone’s pet freak, I’d have already ripped out your spine and beat you to death with it.  But I can see where you might be confused since I  _ am  _ a badass biotic goddess and all.”  She grinned, watching as his light brown hair almost turned white in fright, flaring with a much bigger dark energy presence than any ten people put together, the students included, before something caught her attention behind the group.  Sensing something amiss with the way the unknown student was shambling about, Jack quickly pushed her way through the group before they could move out of her way.

Jack had all of two seconds to register the feral look on the young man’s face before he leapt at her, flaring brightly with the same power she possessed in spades.  Her surprise gave way to years of ingrained instinct and hard earned combat experience, both before her joining the Normandy SR-2 and the years after as she easily threw a Barrier around herself, the energy dome forcing him back hard as he hit the field instead of her.  Before he could bounce off of the hard metal deck, he surprised her further as he threw his hands out to either side and generated concentrated streams of dark energy like a pair of high powered thrusters that allowed him to regain his footing.  Jack raised an eyebrow, more than a little shocked since only a few humans could do that, herself included, but she didn’t give it much thought before she charged him down.

Without so much as hesitating, the young man charged at her with equal fervor.  Unheeding of the sheer difference in their respective powers, let alone the vast experience and skill levels between them, he took her attack head on and predictably got blown backwards, crashing into one of the plant pots standing around, shattering it.  Not even blinking an eye at that despite having shards of pottery sticking out of his back, the student got right back up again, breathing heavily, eyes wild as they flickered across the room, blood flowing from a cut on his upper arm that he didn't even seem to notice. With a wordless cry, he charged at her, fists swinging.  The rest of the class stood at the side in a stupor, unsure what to do at the sudden altercation between their teacher and their comrade.

Jack, for her part, easily dodged the wild punches and didn't hesitate to hit her attacker right back, though he simply shrugged off her non lethal blows and kept on coming.  A little voice in the back of her head wondered why she hadn’t already turned him into a red smear, but she pushed it aside with a defiant growl.  Rolling out of the way of another Shockwave, Jack got ready to defend herself once again as the blonde haired man screamed his lungs out in sheer fury and ran towards her, glowing a deep blue from head to toe. Jack drew her hand back in preparation for the punch that would end this fight with certainty when her opponent suddenly stumbled.

She instead wound up having to catch him as he unexpectedly collapsed.  Whatever berserker energy had been fueling him had worn off, but a quick glance at his face told Jack it was a little more than that when she saw the blood gushing out of his nose and the red tint to his eyes.  Hurriedly tapping at the omni-tool on her wrist, Jack put in a call to Kahlee Sanders, one of her old friends on the station since she’d taken up this job a little under ten years ago.  “Kahlee we got a big fucking problem.  Get a medical team up here.  I think we got a sand-blasted asshole on our hands.  Main rotunda, top floor.  How do I know?  Because his fucking eyes are red!  Yeah I’m on it, just get that med team down here.  And Kahlee, this isn’t the usual stuff I used to use back in the day.  It made him feral, whatever this was.”  She didn’t like the implications of what that might mean for the rest of her students as she did what she could to keep the young man alive while shouting orders to the rest of them to stay back or do something useful.  “Come on fucker, you don’t get to die until I get some goddamn answers.”  She growled as she checked for a pulse before beginning CPR.

**Earth, USA, Washington**

**Washington D.C., ACIS bullpen**

**March 15th, 2195, 8;01 AM**

Chuckling as she walked off the elevator, Ziva shook her head, a wide smile on her face as she deactivated her omni-tool on her way to her desk.  “You’re early, good night?”  Her smile widened minutely as she passed by Tony’s desk just as he sat down a few seconds before she did.

“And I’m impressed that you’re here on time for a change.”  Ziva countered smoothly to which Tony chuckled sarcastically in response.  Signing behind her office terminal, she didn’t look his way, but she was more than happy to keep talking.  “I did in fact have a good night.  Shi’shaa got back into town, and apparently we have shared interests in the theater.  We’re planning to go to a show this weekend.”

“Really?  Huh.  Which show?”  Tony asked, genuinely curious even as that little immature side of his nature deigned to give him the usual sweaty imaginings of the former Mossad agent and the asari tangled up in bed together.  While normally he didn’t mind, it sometimes got in the way, and ever since what had occurred with Jeanne, such musings didn’t hold the same appeal anymore.  Still, he let them play out as he waited for a response, all the while tapping halfheartedly at the keyboard in front of him.

Ziva, knowing where Tony’s mind had gone but also that he was a better man than he’d once been, replied a bit more gently than she initially intended.  “Die Zauberflöte, written by-”

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?  Nice.  So why the Magic Flute?”  Tony asked, definitely intrigued now as he got up from his desk to stand in front of Ziva’s desk.

“Because from what I can recall and what I looked up on the extranet to refresh what I couldn’t, it’s a very popular performance despite some of the less than popular themes of its time.  That, and it is the last thing Mozart ever produced, making it that much more valued by most theater lovers, myself included.”

“So empowered women standing against a misogynistic society has nothing to do with it.”  When Ziva looked up without moving her head, Tony grinned triumphantly at having provoked even that much.  “Thought as much, but whatever gets your engine revved up I suppose.  Do you think Shi’shaa’s a thong or panty girl?”  Tony knew he was in trouble when Ziva’s annoyed look morphed into a mischievous grin.

Standing to her feet, her right hand snapped up and grabbed hold of his nose.  “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you with that Mighty Mouse stapler you have on your desk.”

“Noted.”  Tony groaned through his mouth before running a hand over his sore nose once Ziva let it go.  “So it’s a thong.”  He backed away quickly when she lunged after him only to flail her arms back and sit down in a hurry when Tony straightened in his seat a split second later.  Only one thing could make him appear as if he were working, and no sooner had the thought crossed her mind than Gibbs’ silver head of hair appeared in her vision.

“Got a body.  Get your gear.”  Gibbs ordered just as Dax and McGee stepped out of the elevator.  Taking one look at Gibbs as he grabbed his sidearm from his desk along with his physical ACIS badge, the pair went to do the same while Gibbs went upstairs to talk to the Director.  “Ziva, get Hamu and Ducky, have them get their stuff together.  Dax, get the van gassed up, we’re hopping a flight to Grissom Academy.”

“Where ya goin’ then Gibbs?”

“Talk to the twins since the body was discovered by one of the Commander’s old crew.  Systems Alliance biotic teacher by the name of-”

“Jack?!  Oh boy.”  Dax paled, if a turian could pale, as Gibbs slowed and looked over his shoulder.  “Had an unfortunate run-in with Jack years ago.  Even with an L2 implant, she was a powerhouse.  Untrained like the recently deceased Yanis, but didn’t seem to slow her down since Jack is rage incarnate.  Now she’s got herself the best implant even the military can produce, but only reason I ain’t shaking in my boots is b’cause she’s a much better gal than she was when I met her.”

“Still coming with us unless you want to hand in your pink slip now Agent Dax.”  Not waiting for a response, Gibbs went up the rest of the stairs to the Director’s office.  Pausing just long enough to have his ID scanned by the door lock along with his retinas scanned, Gibbs pushed the heavy door open before sitting down in the front row of the MTAC center.  Despite the very advanced age they lived in, some things remained the same, and the darkened confines of the Multiple Threat Assessment Center was one of them even if the tech inside was significantly more advanced.

“Jethro.”  The softly stated greeting was eerily similar to how Jenny had once addressed him, but if she noticed, Eliza Shepard didn’t comment as she took a sip of her morning coffee.

“Director.”  He replied in greeting as he got comfortable in the darkened ‘theater’ space that might as well be her second office.  The screen before them changed from a combat op of a team of fully equipped marines storming yet another home belonging to one of Yanis’s former buyers, to two faces, one of which he knew on sight despite this was only the second time they’d met.  “Commander.”

“Gunny.”  Elizabeth Shepard said in return before waving a hand towards the second, bald headed woman on screen.  “Let me introduce an old friend of mine.  Jacqueline Nought, biotic combat class instructor for the Systems Alliance, stationed at Jon Grissom Academy.”

“Nine years and I’m still getting used to the name, Liz.”  Jack muttered, arms crossed as she cocked her head to the side before she began to rapidly, and furiously, tap at her omni-tool off-screen.  A picture of the body appeared on another monitor a few seconds later.  “The dead asshole was one of mine, but how the hell he got his hands on the shit that killed him or where it even came from, we’re still trying to figure out.  As much as I just  _ love  _ the idea of having a bunch of navy cops crawling over the place, spooking my kids more, I’m with Kahlee, we need the help Agent….”

“Jethro Gibbs.”  Jethro replied before nodding his head towards the profile that had been sent with the picture.  “Private 2nd Class, Thomas Brown.  ODed on….Red Sand?  Who comes up with these names?”

“People on Mars originally created the drug by a ‘fortunate’ lab accident, it gets the name from its red color and its sand like appearance.”  The ‘older’ Shepard informed him to which her ‘younger’ sister nodded in agreement.

“Except this shit’s all wrong.”  Jack chimed in a split second later.  “Normally, Red Sand gives a sense of euphoria as well as enhancing someone’s biotic output by a noticeable degree.  Even people that don’t have eezo in their system get short bouts of biotic like power while they’re sand-blasted.”

“Common parlance I take it.”  Gibbs stated rather than asked, to which Jack nodded this time.

“Thomas wasn’t feeling a buzz though, he was out of his mind and looking for blood.  Not only that, but he was much stronger from a biotic standpoint than he shoulda been.  He was still no match for me, but the fact he was stronger even under the average dose scares the shit outta me Agent Gibbs.  You get up here and you help me get this shit shut down.”  Without waiting for him or the Shepards to respond, Jack deactivated her side of the conference call, leaving them to discuss among themselves.

Before he could even begin to ask, Elizabeth nodded her head to the unspoken question.  “Yes, she’s like that, but she’s much more calm than she used to be.”

“I can see that.”  Gibbs muttered before he started to get up from his chair.  “What ever happened to not having ACIS be on standby for your sister?”  He asked, making it a point to ignore the ‘older’ Shepard’s darkening glare.

Eliza sighed and grabbed Jethro’s arm to ‘encourage’ him to stay in his seat.  Once he had sat down again, she answered Gibbs’ unspoken question.  “ _ Jack _ called  _ us  _ on now  _ Captain  _ Kahlee Sander’s order, but she was already planning to do so since she’s genuinely worried for the safety of her students, and I don’t blame her.”

“Neither do I, especially since we’ve all seen what Red Sand can do, and that’s the normal kind.  This stuff hits the open market, it’ll be anarchy on the streets.  And retired or not Agent Gibbs, my voice still carries a hell of a lot of weight.  I can always make this an order if you’d like.”

“No, that won’t be necessary, just making sure I know who’s pulling on the chain.”  Gibbs replied as he leveled his gaze on Eliza who simply crossed her arms and glared back, daring him to say anything else.

Elizabeth, for her part, chuckled and smirked openly at the tension between the two.  Even when both Gibbs and her sister turned their attention on her next, the little smirk on her face didn’t falter.  “Should I send out the wedding invites little sis, or do you plan to just elope?”

A sharp jerk of her hand across her throat later, and the screen went blank on their end.  Gibbs said nothing as he stood to his feet with a shake of his head.  “Enjoy that Director?”  He asked once he’d put some distance between himself and the ‘younger’ Shepard.

“More than you’ll ever know.”  Eliza replied as Jethro made his way out of MTAC.

**The Jon Grissom Academy**

**JGA station: orbiting Elysium**

**March 15th, 2195, 8;12 PM**

After a several hour flight that was broken up by a period of sleep and going over what they knew of the crime and the station it’d taken place on, a rested Gibbs was the first to step off the shuttle with the rest of his team following after him.  Ducky, upon spotting the welcoming committee as an older blonde haired woman, her hair efficiently tied into a ponytail, smiled in greeting as he and Hamu lugged their heavy bags off the shuttle.  Gibbs glanced over his shoulder at the flicker of a smile that passed over Kahlee’s face and mentally smirked, having a feeling Ducky had found someone that piqued his interest immensely.  But such things were for later as the man scrutinized the captain and her retinue, which unsurprisingly consisted of the volatile Jack and a number of Alliance marines.  Walking right up to the pair, Gibbs wasted no time in getting to business.  “Captain Sanders I take it?”

“Yes sir.  I’m the current head of the Ascension Project, a program dedicated to giving biotics a chance to learn how to integrate seamlessly into society.  My second, Ms. Nought, is in control of putting biotic power to use in combat situations for those that want to take a more militaristic approach.”  The difference between the two was as visible as night was to day.  Kahlee Sanders was obviously a long standing military officer with her finely pressed uniform, seemingly poured onto her slender, tall frame, not a hair out of place and her posture straight as an arrow.

Jack however kept her arms crossed over her loose, open jacket and the ‘harness’ of buckles and straps that held together a whitish gray undershirt.  Her shaved her was about the only part of her that could have been mistaken for military regulation, but he doubted she was interesting in presenting herself as an officer in the slightest.  “Which means I beat their butts into shape until they can throw people around with their pinkies if they so much as sneeze.”

“Drive them pretty hard do you?”  Gibbs asked as he gestured for the rest of the team to start walking as Kahlee started forward, deeper into the large space station.  The whitish gray metallic walls and the water works gave a more comfortable, civilian air, as did the occasional flash of green from hydroponically grown plants, but if one needed a reminder this was a military run academy, one only needed to see students being led on brisk walks through the various, large passageways and instructors holding training exercises in a number of side chambers.  It wasn’t a boot camp, but it was clear that they weren’t hear for the sights either.

“Not as hard as I could, not nearly as hard as I was back in the day, but most of them are pretty appreciative of my more hands on approach.”  The less than subtle way her eyes filled with old hurts and bad memories was filed away by the rest of the ACIS team, Gibbs included.  Didn’t mean he thought Jack was innocent, and not because she had an extensive criminal history, but he mentally noted it down all the same as they continued to walk and talk.

Kahlee was happy to chime in, making it clear she wasn’t about to let Jack stand alone against their scrutiny even if she maintained a professionalism born from years of experience.  “Ms. Nought’s teaching style might be unorthodox, but the students by and large have responded well ever since she took charge of the combat courses nearly ten years ago.  The vast majority of her first class survived the war thanks in no small part to her contributions.”

“Not everyone...but yeah.”  Jack agreed as she let her arms fall to her sides with a sigh.  “It helped I had ‘em stick to support roles though.  Much as they wanted to hit the front lines, they weren’t ready for that kind of action, none of them were.”

“Something we’ll always have a difference of opinion on.”  Kahlee countered, but otherwise let the subject drop.  “But you didn’t come this far to hear about such things.”

“Nope, but every little bit helps.”  Tony pointed out as he, Ziva, and Dax, who was doing his best to appear as small as possible in the back, shared a brief glance between each other.  “”Sides, not everyday we get to meet one of Shepard’s crew.”

“Yeah, ‘bout the only reason I’m okay with this, beyond the fact we need the help, is because Tali wouldn’t shut up about you guys because of that shit with that psycho quarian.”  Jack growled dangerously in her throat before she looked towards Gibbs, a surprisingly hopeful gleam in her whiskey colored eyes.  “Wendy Watson was a friend of mine, good kid, had a hard time believing she was blind.  Haven’t heard anything about her since the shooting though.”  While the question wasn’t asked, it was still heard loud and clear by them all.

“The last report we’ve received was that Ms. Watson had been taken off life support and that she’s making a slow but steady recovery.”  Ziva informed Jack, to which she visibly relaxed once her words sunk in.  “What can you tell us about Thomas?”  She asked, steering the conversation back to the matter at hand.

Before either Jack or Kahlee could reply, Ducky gently stepped forward, “and I don’t mean to be insensitive, but if you could show me where you’ve put the young man so I can begin an examination-”

“O-of course.  I’ll have someone show you and your assistant the way.”  Kahlee gestured to one of the marines that flanked them, to which they nodded and peeled off from the group with Hamu and Ducky following after him.  Turning to Gibbs, Kahlee continued, “Thomas Brown, like many of our students, was exceptionally gifted, having earned an advanced engineering degree from MIT by the time he was eighteen.  He was accepted into Grissom Academy on a scholarship, having come from a relatively poor home life.  I didn’t know him personally, but everyone that talked about him generally seemed to like him and from his psych evals, I couldn’t find any reason that he’d have taken Red Sand outside perhaps an ill fated dare or out of sheer curiosity.”

“That happen a lot?”  Tony asked.

“People who typically use Red Sand do so with the misguided intention to try and understand those that have biotic ability since even those without eezo in their system can manifest similar abilities for as long as the ‘high’ lasts.  Some simply want to experience something new, but all of those that take Red Sand always end up quickly addicted.  It’s not unheard of for Blue Suns mercenaries to sell Sand to the desperate and poor, only to then sell them into slavery once they can no longer afford their next dose.”

“And since the Suns are the foremost supplier for Sand, even now, it wouldn’t surprise me if they had a hand in this shit.”  Jack growled, her hands clenched tightly into fists at her sides until she received a gentle, chastising look from Kahlee.  She sighed but the look had the desired effect.  “What I want to know is how it got onboard.”

“Any way it could be made here?”  Gibbs asked innocently enough, but the surprised looks on Kahlee and Jack’s faces spoke volumes.

“Fucking unlikely.”  Was Jack’s immediate response despite her thoughtful frown that followed her initial shock.

“As terrible as the idea is to consider, it’s not impossible, but I agree, it’d be highly unlikely.  I don’t know if you noticed, but security here is pretty tight despite this being an academy for the exceptionally best and brightest of the Systems Alliance.  We do have science labs where it’d be possible to produce any number of illegal substances, but they’re always locked up tight when classes aren’t being held, and security cameras are placed strategically throughout the entire station.  All of which are tied to a central command station that is under constant guard.  Every security checkpoint has a highly sophisticated scanning system, every hallway is a kill zone waiting to happen, and no one can move freely through one end of the facility without being electronically tagged at some point.  After Cerberus attacked and the station nearly destroyed by the Reapers that followed soon after, we were given a significant increase in security.”

“I’ll say.”  McGee mused as he nodded towards the various scanners, cameras, and detectors they were about to pass through or under when they reached one of the first checkpoints in question that led into the dormitory section of the station.  “DNA scanners, able to penetrate even the most sophisticated attempt at shielding a target from such deep scans, full spectrum analysis, X-Ray, infrared, the works, and that’s not counting the fact I counted no less than a dozen guards between here and the airlock, all of them placed at choke points to maximize their effectiveness.”

“Someone give you a few ideas on how to bump up security?”  Tony asked, genuinely curious even as his eyes fell on an attractive blonde that was going the other way.

“N7s.” Sanders replied simply and smiled wistfully. “I’ve met a few in my time, and when I asked for help during the rebuilding process, they were eager to answer.  They don't mess around, told me that as long as a single squad worked together properly they’d, be able to easily repel forces more than thrice their numbers.”

“Huh, didn't think spec ops were one for charity.”  N7s were the best of the best, so it was a surprise to Tony, let alone the rest of them save perhaps Ziva, that they’d go out of their way to reinforce a simple academy like this.

“You’d be surprised, though they do request to train here every so often. Taking fortified positions and such, playing tag with huntresses if you are feeling humourus.  We have a number of off site training facilities for both our biotic advanced classes and our more mundane military forces that we help upkeep and maintain.  Engineering students learn practical skills while assisting with said upkeep, and biotics with the propensity for lifting heavy objects or stabilizing structures with their power gain experience in the same fashion.  Everyone benefits.”

“Not a bad philosophy,” Ziva noted before she frowned moments later, “but wouldn’t this kind of practice open yourself to security leaks?”

“It would, except no communications are allowed in these training facilities, and every comm call that takes place on station is closely monitored, screened, and filtered through rigorous security measures before they go anywhere.  As for the students themselves, it’s not unheard of that they at times join the N series after leaving Grissom, a number which has grown significantly ever since our partnership began where we work more closely with our military brethren.”  The look she gave to Jack told them that the inspiration for said partnership was partly thanks to her and her presence.

“Heh, no surprise, the N series marines are pretty badass.  I should know, Shepard’s an N7, and she was damned inspirational in her own right both on and off the field, but even if she wasn’t an N7, I get the feeling she’d have been just fine wherever she wound up.  The force of her personality is somethin’ else.”

“True, though I suppose she had an excellent teacher.”  Stopping in front of the railing that overlooked the multi level dormitory area, Kahlee didn’t need to point out the large metallic podium, or the holographic representation of one of the single most influential humans in recent history, second only to his protege.  Admiral, now Councilor, David Edward Anderson might not have the same notoriety as Shepard, but no one denied that if not for him guiding her in her early days, mentoring her to be the best she could be, the rest of them wouldn’t be around.  Standing upright, the officer blues and numerous medals clearly visible for all to see on his chest, the man's image was caught in the moment of a salute, his entire stance filled with dedication and pride, and even though it was nothing more than a hologram, his eyes seemed keen enough to stare them all down.

When the image shifted unexpectedly, they could only listen as his voice filled the immediate area.   _ “If you had told me I’d be recording a message for the future like this before the war, I’d have just nodded and shrugged my shoulders before getting back to the job at hand.  Now….well, I don’t have to go over what happened when the Reapers came, but we prevailed despite the odds.  We’re still here, and now we have to move forward.  Grissom Academy is that step forward, but while it’s hardly the only academy of its kind, it is where the best and brightest will always be given every opportunity to succeed, to excel, and to grow beyond what would be possible anywhere else.  You’re the future now, never forget that.  It’s up to you to keep the light on, to be the best humanity has to offer, so that our hard won hopes for the future will continue long after people like me and Shepard are long gone.” _

“After meeting him a few times, I can see where she got it from.”  Jack mused as the hologram returned to its earlier pose, drawing their attention back to the present.

“Indeed….”  Kahlee sighed, her gaze wistful and distant as pleasant memories flashed behind her eyes.  No one doubted what was on her mind with an all too visible lovestruck look on her face, tempered somewhat by the fact they likely hadn’t seen each other in a very long time.

Even the somewhat irritated Gibbs was awed somewhat by the impressively decorated man before them, having seen his service record in passing during an early investigation once they’d been reinstated to active service to ACIS.  It was impossible not to be, and not just because he had mentored the savior of the galaxy.  Still, they had a job to do, and they had a drug bust to make.  “Show us the student dorms.”  He ordered at last, to which Kahlee gestured towards the lower levels.  “Tony, McGee, set up shop, get a direct feed established to Abby and the Director, then go over security feeds, see if we can’t find something the locals missed.  Ziva, Dax, you’re with me, let’s go over the crime scene before going over Thomas’s personal effects.  Captain.”

“I’ll have Mr. Brown’s effects brought to you.  As for a command post for your team to settle themselves, there’s a few spare rooms for visiting VIPs that are empty.  You can use them.  I assume you’ll need a guide?”

“Jack’ll suffice.”  It wasn’t a request as Gibbs turned his steel blue eyes on her next.

“Tsk, whatever.” The tattooed woman muttered with a shrug. “But you better not waste my time.”

“Hope you have a sub.”  Tony muttered, which immediately earned a deep, hard death glare from the formerly psychotic biotic.

“I know how this works pretty boy, this isn’t my first time being questioned by pansy ass cops.  You might be federal agents, but that just means you look better in body bags.”

“Was that a threat?”  Tony asked, torn between feeling like his life was in danger and incredibly turned on by the borderline scantily clad, tattooed woman in front of him.

“Nope, just stating a fact.  Besides, I don’t waste time with threats.”  Jack countered smoothly to which Kahlee sighed heavily in exasperation.

“Oh yes, this is going to be fun alright.”  Dax muttered under his breath, with Ziva the only one to hear him as she positioned herself in such a way behind Jack that if she even looked at Gibbs funny, she could lash out in an instant.

If she thought she was being stealthy however, Ziva was surprised when Jack called out, “And tell your little assassin to stop breathing down my neck.  The janitors just cleaned, don't want to get them mad if I have to splatter her all over the floor.”

“Uh, she certainly is…. something.” Tony grumbled lowly and exhaled heavily. “As if we hadn't had enough problems.”

“You’ll have to forgive her brash nature, she has been on edge ever since the incident.” Kahlee cut in from the side. “She’s been through more than most, so you can be sure that she’ll not underestimate the severity of this situation.”  While it was, again, obvious that she was defending Jack, it had the dual effect of calming her down at the same time even as the woman scoffed and stomped off ahead of them.

Gibbs didn’t say a word as he followed after her, with the others falling in behind him a moment later.  It didn’t take Gibbs, Ziva, and Dax long to find themselves at the top of the rotunda, where Jack waved a hand towards the scene that had been cordoned off by the local LEOs from the planet below.  “There isn’t a lot to see, you’d probably have better luck with the security cameras.”

“More interested in your personal opinion Ms. Nought.”  Gibbs replied as he stepped right through the blue glowing holographic police tape to get a closer look at the ground where the fight had taken place, with Dax and Ziva walking around the perimeter of the cordoned off area.

“I almost preferred the earlier suspicion in your voice Agent Gibbs.”  Jack crossed her arms but sighed heavily in response. “Look, I’m not the kid's mother, so I can't say what went through his thick skull, but drugs? I’ve seen junkies, hell, I’ve been one, and I can tell you the kid wasn’t dumb enough for that shit.”

“And yet he was.”  Ziva countered, a reminder that wasn’t necessary but it still got a response as Jack turned to glare at her next, a look the former Mossad agent ignored as she continued to walk around the edge of the holographic ‘tape’.  “I do have to ask, but how long have you been clean, Jack?”

“Over ten years.”  The note of pride in Jack’s voice was hard not to hear.  “I wasn’t allowed to dip back into Red Sand, between Shepard and the Cerberus assholes watching every move I made.  Thankfully, my time as an ice block in a Blue Sun ran prison’s cryostasis had the added side effect of slowly bleeding that shit out of my system, so it wasn’t a big thing during the Omega 4 Relay fiasco when we went up against the Collectors.”

“I see.” Ziva said neutrally, her gaze carefully measured.  “Do you have any idea where he could have come in contact with these drugs? This is after all a school.”

“I sure as hell didn’t give him the Sand if that’s what you’re implying.”  Jack spat out before she continued, “but if I were to guess, it came from the planet below, but that doesn’t explain how it got up here.  Like Kahlee said, there’s security out the ass end on every point of entry, only reason you guys were allowed onboard in the first place is because you passed through several checkpoints that sent your ID info to our command staff.”

“That just means someone’s been smuggling it onboard that’s already been given sufficient clearance to do so.”  Jack couldn’t argue the logic, but that didn’t help her already frayed nerves as Ziva stopped and pulled out an evidence bag.  “Did Thomas have allergies?”  She asked as she picked up what looked like a container of nasal spray that had been rolled behind a nearby garbage can.

“I’ve seen him use that before a few times, yeah.  I didn’t think anything about it at the time though.”  Jack mused as she looked from the cordoned off area to where the container had been found.  “It must have been tossed while I was trying to keep him from hurting anyone else.  If it contains Red Sand, it’ll be pretty obvious.”

“Wouldn't be the first time, come across somethin’ like that.”  Dax mused, breaking his silence at last despite the fact he was trying to keep his distance from Jack as he neared the edge of his half of the cordoned off area.  “I’ve seen one guy hide Red Sand in an eye drop dispenser once, o’course, he wasn’t usin’ it on his eyes.  That’d have burned something fierce.”

“People get desperate enough, they’ll do anything for their next fix.”  Jack agreed as her right hand clenched uncomfortably against her upper forearm.  “It’s part of why I’m glad I no longer have that problem, that and then there’s the fact I’m married.”  That got their attention as even Gibbs looked up from the crime scene, just in time to see the ring she flashed on her right hand ring finger.

“Who’s the lucky guy?”  Ziva asked, intrigued by this latest tidbit of information.

Jack’s chuckle surprised her as she shook her bald head.  “The last person I ever thought I’d fall in love with since she was part of the same group that tortured and experimented on me while I was still a child.  Cerberus’s very own Miranda Lawson.”

“Uh…..”  Ziva was honestly speechless at that, the mere attempt to imagine the two women in any kind of positive, let alone romantic, relationship was enough to give her a headache.

Dax, surprisingly, wasn’t so paralyzed, but even he was somewhat flabbergasted by the news.  “Huh, well congrats Jack.  When’d ya get hitched?”

“About seven years ago.  If you’d have told me I’d be married to the former Cerberus cheerleader, I’d have ripped off your balls, or whatever you turians have, and shoved them down your throat.”

“Ah… good to know.”

“These days though I gotta agree with people who are brave enough to congratulate me.” Jack said with a smirk. “I mean sure she can still be a cold bitch, but have you seen her ass and those tits?”

“Can we focus?”  Ziva demanded irritably and glared at the two biotics. “I didn't come to discuss who is dating who.”

“Aren't you guys supposed to be the best? I figured you’d be able to multitask.” Jack declared with a shrug but motioned for the crime scene. “But fine, be my guest and look as much you damn well please.”

Gibbs didn’t react further save to roll his eyes at the lot of them.  The only thing that stood out to him was where Thomas had hit one of the plant pots, where he quickly bagged the few shards that hadn’t been picked up by the cleaning staff or gone over by the local law enforcement officers.  Abby would likely want the whole thing so she could piece it together for comparison if nothing else.  But as much as he didn’t want to admit it, there was nothing here to see, but Jack had provided more information than she realized despite the frequent sidetracks.  “Well,” Gibbs said as he stood to his full height before turning to the group, “if nothing else, I think it’s past time we talked to Thomas’s dorm mates.  Arrange for a place for us to conduct interviews, and  _ don’t  _ tell them why.”

“Kahlee already had his unit isolated, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but people are already talking about what happened since most of the advanced combat group were present for the incident.  Thomas was late but again I didn’t think anything about it initially, now I wish I had.”  Jack muttered, guilt flashing in her brown eyes for having not seen this coming.

Despite his suspicions, Gibbs was only slightly willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

**The Jon Grissom Academy**

**JGA station: orbiting Elysium**

**March 15th, 2195, 8;37 PM**

Setting up shop was a simple matter for McGee and Tony once they’d been shown to the VIP quarters, although they had mostly just set their stuff down before going to the central command security station once they’d gotten their secured connection established.  Situated between a number of assistant technicians and the current chief of security, DiNozzo and McGee were passing a bowl of popcorn back and forth between them while Jason Graham answered what questions he could.

“Gotta say Agent McGee, you certainly know your stuff.”  Silver gray hair tied tight into a ponytail that snaked down his right shoulder, Jason’s gray eyes gleamed with approval for the tech expert’s obvious knowledge about his craft.  “Saw your progress with the good Captain and her second, Jack might be rough but she’s a good gal to have around.  The kids love her.”

“That’s what we’ve heard.  Can’t argue with her fashion sense either.”  McGee wanted to roll his eyes at Tony’s obvious attraction to the psychotic biotic.

“Careful there big boy, she’s married and both her and the missus would probably splatter you if you try anything.”  Graham warned, his gray eyes narrowing somewhat in his youthful face as he crossed his arms loosely over his chest.

“Aww man.” Tony grumbled and shook his head. “Why are all the hot sci-fi babes already taken?”

“Because they’ve got taste.” McGee mumbled quietly.

“What was that Elf Lord?”  Tony retorted sharply as he jerked the bowl of popcorn away from McGee before he could grab another kernel.

“Nothing Tony, just stating a fact.”

“Next time speak up, McGeek.”

“And now I’m wondering if I should be looking for a wedding ring between you two.”  Jason chuckled and grinned widely when both men shot him equally dirty looks for his teasing remark.  Nodding his head to the various video monitors, the chief of security pulled up the feed they were looking for after a few rapid taps at the controls.  “There, a little after 0700, Thomas goes up to the top level where he immediately goes berserk upon seeing the class.  If not for Jack getting between him and them, I’m willing to guess we’d be cleaning up the remains for a week.”

“Yeesh, makes me real glad, again, that we have Dax with us these days.  That thing with Yanis could have went down a lot differently.”  Tony muttered uncomfortably as the fight played itself out for the agents with Jack coming out the victor.  “Guess ol Tommy boy had a bad buzz.”  Seeing the young man collapse just as he was about to continue their brawl, Tony couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at how quick Jack went from wanting to rip his guts out to trying to save his life.  “Ziva said there was a nasal spray bottle they found at the scene, hidden behind a garbage can.  See if you can’t scan for it, see how it might have wound up back there.”

“Really?”  Jason asked, intrigued as McGee began going frame by frame after zooming in on the pair.  “You think his Sand was in the spray bottle?”

“Well, that’s being tested for already,” McGee explained as he continued to scan frame by frame in reverse, “but if someone else had their hands on it, we can hopefully find out how far this thing goes.  If it came from Thomas himself however-”

“Then we’ll be stuck with no obvious trail to follow.”  Jason grimaced, understanding that they’d be up a creek with no paddle, at least until something else came up.

Tony was the first to mutter a colorful curse when Thomas’s bottle flew out of his hand when he hit Jack’s Barrier at the beginning of the fight, but his eyes alighted on something else that immediately drew his attention.  “Whoa hold up, zoom out McGee.”  Not about to question his request, McGee quickly pulled the image back before Tony pointed to the back of the assembled onlookers.  “There.”

“Why doesn’t she seem surprised?”  McGee asked, the dubious tone in his voice audible to everyone.

“Because I think it’s safe to say she’s in on it.”  Tony replied, as his eyes alighted on the platinum blonde’s face as she casually backed away from the scene of the fight.  “At least, she obviously knows something.  What’s the name for our blonde friend?”

Pulling up her image about the same time he pulled up the dorm directory, they had their answer as both pictures synced up a few seconds later.  “Margaret Thetford.”

**End Notes:  Vergil1989:**  UGH!  Lol this chapter was kicking my ass from start to finish, but we finally got it done.  I’m happy with it overall, although it could have been better admittedly.  Meh, I’ll hopefully get it together for the next three parts of this ‘case’, but between some RL stuff and just having inspirational issues, it could have been far worse truth be told.  Still, I hope you guys and gals approve of the effort and that we hear from you all soon regarding your thoughts/impressions/etc.  And  **Nomad-117** , if not for his assistance, I probably’d still be stuck on the first page, so shout outs to him.  ; D  Adios!


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